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The purpose of this study is to analyze how sentiment affects economic activity in Brazil.

Based on a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model, this study examines in detail the short-term and long-term asymmetric impacts between the variables during the period from January 2007 to December 2020.

There are three main results of this study. First, sentiment is an important factor for economic activity in Brazil, and its effect possibly occurs through the channels of consumption and investment, which are the two main components of economic growth. Second, sentiment affects economic activity in different ways in the short and the long term: in Brazil, although in the short-term, immediate shocks of sentiment may be confusing, the negative shocks from previous periods have a negative impact on economic activity. Third, the effect of shocks of optimism and pessimism on economic activity is asymmetric, and in the long run, only shocks of optimism have a significant and positive impact.

The relationship between sentiment and economic activity is still a controversial issue in the literature and this study seeks to advance its understanding in Brazil.

The aim of this article is to assess the macroeconomic consequences of some specific aspects of financialization (i.e. share buy-back) using a hybrid post-Keynesian model of growth and distribution based on Kaldorian and Kaleckian characteristics.

The study follows a post-Keynesian approach and deals with financialization issues by implementing several numerical simulations.

The numerical simulations reveal the negative real impacts of massive share repurchases on the rate of accumulation because they immediately siphon off revenues directly intended for investment projects. Moreover, the negative effect of share buy-backs is reinforced especially when firms' investment decisions are more sensitive to a variation in retained earnings. Next, this macro-model also reproduces several well-known figures of the Kaleckian tradition and the paradox of costs.

The present article can be considered as a starting point for further theoretical extensions and requires empirical validation.

The Kaldor-Kalecki macro-model could be useful for policymakers who are interested in containing some of the negative excesses of financialization.

Our study aims to evaluate the impact of infrastructure and public investment on private investment in machinery and equipment in Brazil from 1947 to 2017. The contribution of our article to the existing literature lies in providing a more comprehensive understanding of the presence or absence of the crowding effect in the Brazilian economy by leveraging an extensive historical database. Our central argument posits that the recent decline in private capital accumulation over the last few decades can be attributed to shifts in economic policies – moving from a developmentalist orientation to nondevelopmental guidance since the early 1990s, which is reflected in the diminished levels of public investment and infrastructure since the 1980s.

We conducted a series of econometric regressions utilizing the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model as our chosen econometric methodology.

Employing two different variables to measure public investment and infrastructure, our results – robust across various specifications – have substantiated the existence of a crowding-in effect in Brazil over the examined period. Thus, we have empirical evidence indicating that the state has influenced private capital accumulation in the Brazilian economy over the past decades.

Our article contributes to the existing literature by offering a more comprehensive understanding of the crowding effect in the Brazilian economy, utilizing an extensive historical database.

The purpose of this study is to examine the propagation of consumer and business confidence in the euro area with a particular focus on the global financial crisis (GFC), the European sovereign debt crisis (ESDC) and the COVID-19-induced Great Lockdown.

The authors apply Diebold and Yilmaz’s connectedness framework and the improved method based on the time-varying parameter vector autoregressive model.

The authors find that although the evolution of business confidence marked the GFC and the ESDC the role of consumer confidence (mainly in those countries with stricter containment and closure measures) increased in the COVID-19-induced crisis.

The findings are related to the different origins of the examined crisis periods, and the analysis of their interrelationship is a very relevant topic for future research.

The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to amplify the imperativeness for a re-oriented regulatory approach that prioritizes constructive engagement with the regulated communities, harnessing the existing pool of savings and retention of market participation.

The paper adopts a doctrinal legal research design with data drawn from primary and secondary sources of law. The primary sources include case laws and statutes, and the secondary sources include book chapters, journal articles and other internet-sourced materials.

The paper finds that the status quo in Nigeria if left to continue would spell severe economic disaster for Nigeria’s securities administration, but a well-structured realignment of the regulations would boost the country’s securities market effectiveness.

The research’s conclusions and suggestions might only be applicable to Nigeria’s particular situation with regard to capital market development and securities regulation. Other nations or locations with distinct regulatory systems, market structures and economic situations may not be able to immediately adapt it. When extending the research results outside of the Nigerian environment, caution should be exercised. For regulatory agencies and policymakers, the research offers insightful suggestions. The analysis may pinpoint certain areas where policy changes are required to address reoccurring problems and improve the chances for a healthy capital market.

For Nigeria’s regulatory frameworks controlling securities to be strengthened, this paper would be crucial. To make sure they are in line with global best practices, this entails examining and revising current laws, rules and standards. A stronger regulatory environment may also result from the implementation of harsher enforcement procedures and consequences for noncompliance. It is also required for creating market infrastructure, fostering market integration and cooperation, facilitating access to capital, monitoring and evaluation. It would also benefit investor education and protection.

Addressing these persistent issues and potential remedies in Nigeria’s capital market development and securities regulation would have various advantageous social effects. These include improved market infrastructure, more financial inclusion, improved investment protection for investors and improved market openness and integrity. Such results will help Nigerian society as a whole by fostering economic expansion, job creation, wealth distribution and general social progress.

This paper is the original work of the authors and has not been published anywhere nor submitted to another journal for publication.

The paper redefines workplace spirituality (WS/WPS) by transcending the existential vacuum (in psychiatric terms a sense of lack of meaning of human existence and thus of work), leading to the development of workplace creativity, productivity and satisfaction, targeting operational profitability and organizational optimization.

Spirituality is analyzed philosophically, following the Nietzschean definition in response to Schopenhauer’s primordial suffering. Philosophical syncretism yields a viable organizational culture change model of spiritualizing the workplace. For this purpose, specific techniques are proposed which are combined with those already applied to various large companies and organizations.

Spirituality in the workplace acts as a catalyst for developing beneficial qualities by increasing employee job satisfaction, organizational efficiency and business profitability, when equally responding to stakeholders’ needs.

The suggested change model holistically fosters organizational, operational, individual and collective effectiveness through work place spirituality redefined.

For the first time spirituality in the workplace is discussed under a brand new perspective, resulting in an interdisciplinary emerging model, contributing to the field by providing guidance to academics and practitioners to its auspicious implementation through organizational culture change.

The purpose of this paper is to provide theory for some popular models and strategies used by practitioners in constructing optimal portfolios. King (2007), for example, advocated adding a diversification term to mean-variance problems to create better portfolios and provided clear empirical evidence that this is beneficial.

The authors provide an analytical framework to help us understand different portfolio construction practices that may incorporate diversification and conviction strategies; this allows us to connect our analysis to ideas in psychophysics and behavioural finance. The critical psychological ideas are cognitive dissonance and entropy; the economics are based on expected utility theory. The empirical section uses the theory outlined and provides the basis for constructing such portfolios.

The model presented allows the incorporation of different strategies within a mean-variance framework, ranging from diversification and conviction strategies to more ESG-oriented ones. The empirical analysis provides a practical application.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this model is the first to bridge the gap between portfolio optimisation and the psychological ideas mentioned in a coherent analytical framework.

Following behavioral finance and monetary wisdom, the authors theorize: Decision-makers (investors) adopt deep-rooted personal values (the love-of-money attitudes/avaricious financial aspirations) as a lens to frame critical concerns (short-term and long-term investment decisions) in the immediate-proximal (current income) and distal-omnibus (future inheritance) contexts to maximize expected utility and ultimate serenity across context, people and time.

The authors collected data from 277 active equity traders (professional money managers and individual investors) in Pakistan’s two most robust investment hubs—Karachi and Lahore. The authors measured their love-of-money attitude (avaricious monetary aspirations), short-term and long-term investment decisions and demographic variables and collected data during Pakistan's bear markets (Pakistan Stock Exchange, PSX-100).

Investors’ love of money relates to short-term and long-term decisions. However, these relationships are significant for money managers but non-significant for individual investors. Further, investors’ current income moderates this relationship for short-term investment decisions but not long-term decisions. The intensity of the aspirations-to-short-term investment relationship is much higher for investors with low-income levels than those with average and high-income levels. Future inheritance moderates the relationships between aspirations and short-term and long-term decisions. Regardless of their love-of-money orientations, investors with future inheritance have higher magnitudes of short-term and long-term investments than those without future inheritance. The intensity of the aspirations-to-investments relationship is more potent for investors without future inheritance than those with inheritance. Investors with low avaricious monetary aspirations and without inheritance expectations show the lowest short-term and long-term investment decisions. Investors' current income and future inheritance moderate the relationships between their love of money attitude and short-term and long-term decisions differently in Pakistan's bear markets.

The authors help investors make financial decisions and help financial institutions, asset management companies, brokerage houses and investment banks identify marketing strategies and investor segmentation and provide individualized services.

Professional money managers have a stronger short-term orientation than individual investors. Lack of wealth (current income and future inheritance) motivates greedy investors to take more risks and become more vulnerable than non-greedy ones—investors’ financial resources and wealth matter. The Matthew Effect in investment decisions exists in Pakistan’s emerging economy.

From these data, the authors construct an uncertainty index through the use of a vector autoregressive (VAR) model to measure the impact of uncertainty on GDP, controlling for inflation, which may affect macroeconomic performance. Results indicate that uncertainty is negatively correlated with the economic cycle and the inter-annual variation of the biannual average product.

This study empirically explores the dynamics of expectations of the Uruguayan manufacturing firms about industrial economic growth. This study explores the dynamics of the industrial economic growth expectations of Uruguayan manufacturing firms. The empirical research is based on firms' expectations data collected through a monthly survey carried out by the Chamber of Industries of Uruguay (CIU) in 2003–2018.

Granger causality tests show that uncertainty Granger-causes industrial production growth and a one standard deviation shock on uncertainty generates a contraction in the industrial production growth rate. Finally, the authors use statistical and network tools to identify groups of firms with similar performance on expectations. Results show that higher uncertainty is associated with smaller, more interconnected groups of firms, and that the number of homogeneous groups and the distance between groups increases with uncertainty. These findings suggest that policies focused on the coordination of expectations can lead to the development of stable opinion groups.

The paper introduces new data and new methodologies to analyze the dynamics of expectations of manufacturing firms about industrial economic growth.

1. An empirical approach to compare expectations of firms is introduced.

2. The occurrence of groups of opinion is tested.

3. Central companies in the network of expectations are detected.

4. More uncertainty implies a higher degree of discrepancy between the overall firm’s opinions and more compact opinion groups.

An empirical approach to compare expectations of firms is introduced.

The occurrence of groups of opinion is tested.

Central companies in the network of expectations are detected.

More uncertainty implies a higher degree of discrepancy between the overall firm’s opinions and more compact opinion groups.

Social exclusion is a complicated psychological phenomenon with behavioral ramifications that influences consumers' lifestyles and behaviors. In contrast, anthropomorphism is a phenomenon that marketing strategists employ and that occurs in customers' lives as a result of social isolation. The literature discusses these two complicated structures as ones that require investigation based on consumer judgments. The purpose of the current study is to understand the fundamental motivations that underlie the propensity for anthropomorphizing in people who suffer social isolation through their pets.

To look into the motivations driving these themes, a study technique with three distinct components was created. Cyberball was employed as a technique to manipulate social exclusion in the initial stage of this research methodology. Two scenarios, one of which had an anthropomorphizing tendency and the other of which did not, were presented to participants who had suffered social exclusion and advanced to the second phase in order to determine the anthropomorphizing tendency. The Attachment to Pets Scale (LAPS), which Johnson et al. (1992) created based on the social support provided by pets, was utilized while creating the scenarios. The Zaltman method was applied as an interviewing technique in the third stage of the research design, with the interviewees being guided by visuals that reflected their emotions and thoughts.

The results of the data analysis were evaluated in light of social psychology. A more thorough expression of the complex relationship between anthropomorphism and those who experience social exclusion has been made. The findings showed that when people anthropomorphize their pets in response to feelings of social exclusion, the motivations that emerge include pure love, loyalty, animals' need for a human, living creature and embracing. The study emphasizes that these ideas will be helpful in customers' interactions with anthropomorphic objects.

As a contribution to the literature, the study findings offer the five major motivations underpinning these beliefs. These findings may help marketing scientists comprehend social exclusion and anthropomorphism, thereby benefiting the individual and society.

The majority of research in the literature (Chen et al., 2017; Epley et al., 2008; Eyssel and Reich, 2013; Waytz et al., 2019) verified that people who were socially excluded would use anthropomorphism, but no studies were discovered about the motivations outlined in the current study. The results of this investigation should add to the body of knowledge in this area. The pet was employed as an anthropomorphism tool in the current study because it is the object that a person chooses to anthropomorphize deliberately and independently. It adds to the study's originality by explaining in the individual's own terminology how he will feel as a result of his social isolation, how he will make up for it and potential responses he may have. In addition to all of these contributions, the study's primary goal of analyzing the motivations behind anthropomorphism yields significant findings that are relevant to both industry and academic research.