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Earlier studies have found that the country characteristics play important role in measuring the corporate transparency. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the firm-level determinants play an important role in corporate transparency measured as the quality of disclosed earnings across transitional Europe and what role an overall transparency measured by the Corruption Perception Index plays in it. This paper further tests if the market reacts similarly to discretionary and non-discretionary components of earnings across different groups of countries with respect to transparency.

The financial and ownership data of listed companies in ten European countries is obtained from Amadeus. The transparency ratings are obtained from Transparency International. The sample consists of a panel of 2001 listed companies and modified Jones model of Dechow et al. (1995) is used to measure the quality of earnings.

This paper shows that the firm-level determinants (except firm size) of the quality of earnings are different among different groups made on the basis of transparency ratings. However, the determinants of the quality of earnings are not different within each group. The ownership structure of companies plays important role in determining the quality of earnings in most transparent countries whereas financial factors play significant role in least transparent countries. The markets respond positively to earnings quality in most transparent group of countries.

The results of this study provide interesting basis for future research on economic and social integration of Europe. Although the policy makers are trying to integrate the countries through common Laws and decrees but examining the firm-level factors such as size, growth and ownership are still important. The regulators should address the issue of corporate transparency in Europe by looking at the importance of these factors with respect to overall transparency.

This study extends the knowledge, not only for academicians and investors but for policy makers as well. This study re-emphasizes the role of country-level transparency and firm-level determinants of the corporate transparency within Europe.

This study assesses the relevance of foreign aid to the incidence of capital flight and unemployment in 20 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

The study is for the period 1996–2018, and the empirical evidence is based on interactive quantile regressions in order to assess the nexuses throughout the conditional distribution of the unemployment outcome variable.

From the findings, capital flight has a positive unconditional incidence on unemployment, while foreign aid dampens the underlying positive unconditional nexus. Moreover, in order for the positive incidence of capital flight to be completely dampened, foreign aid thresholds of 2.230 and 3.964 (% of GDP) are needed at the 10th and 25th quantiles, respectively, of the conditional distribution of unemployment. It follows that the relevance of foreign aid in crowding out the unfavourable incidence of capital flight on unemployment is significantly apparent only in the lowest quantiles or countries with below-median levels of unemployment. The policy implications are discussed.

The study complements the extant literature by assessing the importance of development assistance in how capital flight affects unemployment in sub-Saharan Africa.

The purpose of this paper is to systematically map research on the effect of classroom acoustics and noise on high school students’ listening, learning and well-being, as well as identify knowledge gaps to inform future research.

This scoping review followed the PRISMA-ScR protocol. A comprehensive search of four online databases (ERIC, PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science) was conducted. Peer-reviewed papers were included if they conducted a study on the effect of classroom acoustics or noise on students’ listening, learning or well-being; had a clear definition of the noise level measurement; were conducted with high school students; and had the full text in English available.

In total, 14 papers met the criteria to be included in the review. The majority of studies assessed the impact of noise on students’ listening, learning or well-being. Overall, the results showed that higher noise levels have a negative effect on students’ listening, learning and well-being. Effects were even more pronounced for students who were non-native speakers or those with special educational needs such as hearing loss. Therefore, it would be beneficial to limit unnecessary noise in the classroom as much as possible through acoustic insulation, acoustic treatment and classroom management strategies.

This paper is the first review paper to synthesize previous research on the effect of classroom acoustics and noise on high school students’ listening, learning and well-being. It provides an analysis of the limitations of existing literature and proposes future research to help fill in these gaps.

This study aims to explore twin objectives. Initially, the study scrutinises the consequences of various pollution control acts and protocols signed by India to improve the air quality and then the study involves itself to investigate the aftermath of COVID-19 lockdown on the air quality of highly populated Mumbai city of India. The empirical analysis is facilitated by the application of Poirier’s Spline function approach on the secondary data compiled from the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB). The corresponding structural shifting points are identified through the CUSUM of squares (CUSUMQ) test. The empirical results disclose that Kyoto Protocol and lockdown have positively influenced the air quality. This study ends with suitable policy prescriptions.

This paper aims to estimate the determinants of the intensity of use of financial inclusion by households in Ghana.

Due to the reality of a household using one or more financial products or services, this study uses the generalised Poisson model applied to GLSS6 and GLSS7 data collected in 2012/2013 and 2016/2017 respectively, to estimate the determinants of the intensity of use of financial inclusion. To deepen the analysis, a multinomial probit model is also applied.

Results show that infrastructural variables such as roads, public transport and banks stimulate the intensity of financial inclusion. In addition, agricultural development characteristics such as markets and cooperatives are essential for the intensity of inclusion.

There is a need to incorporate how many services or depth of services that people use as part of the conceptualisation of financial inclusion, as this can provide more policy-relevant evidence to enhance priority setting in financial inclusion policies. Also, micro-level financial inclusion studies in agrarian economies should consider exploring agricultural development and infrastructure variables in the modelling framework. As lead to further studies, count models of financial inclusion should consider exploring cross-country analysis, the use of panel data, or other methodological approaches to provide more robust evidence.

Previous studies have not modelled financial inclusion based on a count model as a means of measuring intensity though conceptualisations highlight the fact that people use varied financial products or services. Following from this angle, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study provides the first attempt at analysing the underlying determinants of the number of financial products or services used by households.

This study aims to investigate how the gold return and its volatility respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stochastic volatility (SV) models are conducted to examine the response of gold to the number of new confirmed cases and deaths.

The results indicate that an increase in the change rate of the number of COVID-19 infections or fatalities leads to heightened volatility in gold prices. Moreover, the results suggest that gold volatility is more sensitive to the impacts from high-income countries than by those from middle- and low-income countries. In addition, the asymmetric effect is detected in the gold price volatility, which is contrary to the typical asymmetric effect seen in the stock market. Furthermore, the results remain robust after accounting for the US dollar and the volatility index in relation to gold returns.

This study presents whether and to what extent gold is incorporated in the information related to the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths.

This study augments the existing literature by exploring how the number of COVID-19 infections and fatalities influences gold prices. In addition, it examines the day-of-the-week and asymmetric effects that may contribute to the volatility of gold prices. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the evolution of gold has not yet been investigated using SV models.

This study aims to identify the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth in Morocco depending on each origin country, including Spain. This study uses a linear model to measure the marginal impact of FDI on the growth of Morocco. This marginal effect allows to compare the different effects of FDI among countries of origin. Also, the marginal effect helps to measure the rate of substitution between FDI in an easier way than the other specifications of the model. The second step determines the substitute for Spain in case he decides to divest its FDI from Morocco to maintain the economic growth.

Using data of FDI from 13 countries of origin from 1995 to 2020 and two estimation methods (Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares and Autoregressive model), this study aims to measure the marginal impact of the divestment of FDI from Spain on growth. Then this study estimates how much Morocco should attract FDI from other countries when Spain divests. This study uses the differential calculus, assuming a perfect substitution between FDI from different countries. This calculus implies an indifference curve between FDI from Spain and FDI from another country where we deduct the substitution rates between FDI.

The results indicate that the FDI from Spain and France are the only ones to impact positively Moroccan economic growth. The FDI coming from Germany, Holland, China and Turkey have a negative impact, whereas those from the USA, Italy, UK, Switzerland and Gulf countries: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and UAE have an insignificant effect. Second, using the differential calculus, the result indicates that when Spain divests 1m dirhams of its investments from Morocco, France would have to increase its own by 0.1509m dirhams so that Morocco could maintain its economic growth.

The research focuses only on economic growth, neglecting the impact on other aggregates, such as total factor productivity, technology transfer and employment. Also, this research marginalized the sectorial analysis of FDI by the source to better understand the divergent effects.

This paper fills a research gap when analyzing the effect of FDI on the host economy depending on country-of-origin. In addition, it contributes to the body of literature by constructing the rate of substitution between the different sources of FDI to adapt to divestment policy.

This study aims to investigate the dynamic interconnectedness of economic policy uncertainty (EPU), fiscal policy uncertainty (FPU) and monetary policy uncertainty (MPU) in four nations, the USA, Japan, Greece and South Korea, between 1998 and 2021.

To comprehend the cross-category/cross-country evolution of uncertainty connectedness, the authors use the conditional connectedness approach. By using an inclusive network, this strategy lessens the bias caused by omitted variables. The TVP-VAR method is advantageous as it eliminates outliers that may potentially skew the results and reduces the bias caused by picking arbitrary rolling windows.

Based on the findings, aggregate EPU is a net transmitter of policy uncertainties across all countries when conditional-country connectedness is used. MPU receives significantly more spillovers than FPU does across all countries, even though both are primarily recipients of uncertainties. The USA appears to be a transmitter of categorical spillovers before COVID-19, while Greece appears to be a net receiver of all category spillovers in terms of category-specific connectedness. The existence of extreme global events is also seen to cause an increase in category-specific and country-specific connectedness. Additionally, the authors report that conditional country-specific connectedness is greater than conditional category-specific connectedness.

This study expands existing literature in several ways. Firstly, the authors use a novel conditional connectedness approach, which has not been used to untangle cross-category/cross-country policy uncertainty connectedness. Secondly, they use the TVP-VAR approach which does not depend on rolling windows to understand dynamic connectedness. Thirdly, they use an expanded number of countries in their analysis, a departure from existing studies that have in most cases used two countries to understand categorical EPU connectedness.

This study aims at evaluating the technical efficiency (TE) of healthcare systems in the Arab region and exploring the key factors that affect the efficiency performance.

The study applies a two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach to a sample of 20 Arab countries. In the first stage, a DEA model is used to calculate the TE scores of the examined healthcare systems in 2019 and 2010, following both the output and input orientations of efficiency. In the second stage, a censored Tobit model is estimated to investigate the determinants of healthcare efficiency.

DEA results of 2019 indicate that achievable efficiency gains of the Arab countries range from 0.4% to 16% under the output and input orientations, respectively. Six countries are efficient under both orientations. Although the average efficiency scores of the Arab countries have deteriorated between 2010 and 2019, Djibouti and Sudan had the greatest efficiency improvements between the two years. Bahrain, Mauritania, Morocco and Qatar proved to be efficient in 2010 and 2019 under the two orientations of efficiency and according to the two DEA specifications followed. The Tobit model reveals that corruption and government health expenditure tend to have an adverse impact on healthcare efficiency.

The author evaluates healthcare efficiency and healthcare's efficiency determinants in the Arab countries. Regardless Arab countries' diversity, these countries are facing common health challenges, including diminishing role of governments in healthcare financing; increased out-of-pocket healthcare spending; poor healthcare outputs and prevalence of health inequities resulting from weak governance institutions. Comparing the efficiency of healthcare systems between 2010 and 2019 gives insights on the potential impact of the Arab spring uprisings on healthcare efficiency. Moreover, examining the determinants of healthcare efficiency allows for better understanding of how to improve the efficiency of healthcare systems in the region.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the corporate capital structure stability of listed firms in China during the period 1990–2013.

The study uses panel data from a sample of 716 firms that have been listed in China for at least 15 years. A fixed-effects panel data regression model with time effects is used in the estimation.

The findings show that size, profitability and investment opportunities have a significant influence on capital structure, whereas the tangibility of assets is not found to be significant. Few industries show significance in explaining differences and variation in leverage ratios.

It is recommended by this study that corporate managers of listed firms in China should consider leverage ratios variation while choosing the capital structure.

This study can be helpful in assisting companies to make financing decisions and setting up strategies relevant in their growth and profitability. The study will also have a significant assistance to bring to light corporate issues to policy makers, especially in the areas of both equity and debt financing, particularly the bond market. To the society, this study will show the nature of Chinese-listed companies, and it can assist individual investors in making decisions regarding companies in which they hold investments and in making meaningful comparisons with other companies. The paper also aims at contributing to the existing literature on the empirical study on capital structure.