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The cost-to-asset ratio is a vital efficiency ratio for any financial institution, as it measures its operating expenses to its asset base. This study uses this ratio to evaluate the efficiency of defined benefit pension plans (DBPPs) in the Republic of Congo using financial and macroeconomic indicators.

Under the financial indicator, the authors apply vector autoregression (VAR) to a dataset covering 120 months from 2011 to 2020. In addition, the authors use 12 years of data from 2009 to 2020 and the random effects model under macroeconomic indicators.

Assets and costs together Granger cause the efficiency of the DBPP. However, there is no Granger causality from the combination of assets and costs on the DB public and industry PP efficiencies. The random effects model results show that macroconnect level variables significantly lower the cost-to-asset ratio, thereby improving the PP's efficiency. Macrodisconnect level variables significantly increase the cost-to-asset ratio, thereby deteriorating PP efficiency.

The study is limited to a developing economy in sub-Saharan Africa, which may hinder the generalization of the results. Future studies could use panel samples from sub-Saharan Africa so that inferences could be drawn for the continent and comparisons made with others.

To the best of the authors knowledge, this study is the first in sub-Saharan Africa to assess the efficiency of DBPPs using financial and macroeconomic indicators.

This research designed, optimized and tested a context-specific scale to evaluate public sector employees' pension choices.

The authors developed the scale using a comprehensive process of interviews and focus groups with experts across academia and finance. The authors used the refined scale to collect data from 564 faculty members in public sector universities following a multistage systematic cluster sampling technique. The findings revealed diversity in choice across different socio-economic and demographic variables.

The results revealed that items related to the defined benefit pension system explain most of the data variance and are preferred widely. This is followed by a preference for monetizing pension benefits and a defined contribution system. These findings indicated the need for flexible pension plans.

Therefore, the progressive movement towards monetization and the shift from defined benefit to a defined contribution pension system due to economic pressures must be accurately calculated and introduced where it is suitable.

Although the theory of introducing a defined contribution pension system and monetization system is appealing, its practical implementation may not be encouraging for all employees.

This paper offers a new perspective on the potential motivation for the adoption of employee ownership based on market power. Employee ownership may be linked to market power, either through contributing to firm growth that leads to market power or through industry leaders adopting employee ownership as part of rent sharing or a broader consolidation of market position. Both employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) coverage and product market concentration (PMC) have been increasing in the past two decades, providing a good opportunity to see if and how these are related.

The authors predict ESOP adoption and termination using multilevel regressions based on 2002–2012 firm- and industry-level data from the Census Bureau, Compustat and Form 5500 pension datasets.

The authors find that the top four firms in concentrated industries are more likely to adopt Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs), while having an ESOP does not predict entering the top four, apart from firm-level predictors. Tests indicate the first result does not reflect simple rent sharing with employees but instead appears to reflect an effort by firms to consolidate market power through the attraction and retention (or “locking in”) of industry talent. Other positive predictors of ESOPs include company size, being in a high-wage industry and having a defined benefit (DB) pension.

To better distinguish among hypotheses, it would be helpful to have firm-level data on managerial attitudes, strategies, networks and monopsony measures. Therefore, future research using such data would be highly useful and encouraged.

The paper includes implications for the potential usefulness of ESOPs in attracting and retaining talent and for the design of nuanced policy to encourage more broadly based sharing of economic rewards.

While prior research focuses on firm-level predictors of employee ownership, this study uses market concentration and other industry-level variables to predict the use of ESOPs. This study makes a unique contribution, broadening the current thinking on firm motives and environmental conditions predictive of firm ESOP adoption.

This study examines how the presence of labor unions affects a firm’s pay disparity between executives and employees and its financial statement comparability.

It uses firm-level labor union data in Korea and applies regression analyses to a sample of 1,776 firm-year observations from 2004 to 2008.

The authors find that unionized firms have a smaller pay disparity between executives and employees than non-unionized firms, suggesting that labor unions place pressure on the pay structure. Unionization also lowers financial statement comparability, which helps managers of unionized firms maintain information asymmetry. Further, this negative relationship between unionization and financial statement comparability is stronger in non-chaebol firms, implying that they are more motivated than chaebol firms to reduce their financial statement comparability in response to the presence of labor unions. In addition, the negative relationship between unionization and financial statement comparability is pronounced in profit-making firms, firms with less analyst following, firms with fewer foreign investors and firms in more competitive product markets.

The finding that firms adjust comparability in response to labor unions interests regulators and policymakers, who emphasize the role of comparability in providing usefulness to information users.

The findings add to the existing literature on the effect of labor unions on firms' pay structures and accounting choices.

Employees play a vital role in the success of a corporation. While boards of directors are created to protect shareholders’ interests, it is unclear if these directors also ensure employee welfare. In this vein, our paper examines the relationship between board leadership structure and employee well-being.

The authors employ several analysis techniques, including univariate analysis, ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions, two-stage least squares (2SLS) regressions, propensity score matching methodology, the Heckman Selection model and difference-in-differences analysis. The sample comprises USA public firms for the period 1998–2018.

Our findings indicate that having an independent chairperson can significantly benefit the welfare of employees, especially for firms with overly powerful chief executive officers (CEOs) and during times of financial distress.

Independent leadership structure is one of the crucial board characteristics that have not been examined to explain employee welfare at firms. We find that an independent chairperson can mitigate the negative effect of overly powerful CEOs on employee benefits. Importantly, independent chairpersons are beneficial for employees in difficult times and when CEOs are busy with daily activities.

This paper aims to document international evidence of the impact of a board-level governance bundle [size, independence, CEO duality, gender diversity and sustainability committee (SC)] on sustainability reporting (SR) and, separately, on its three dimensions (economic, environmental and social).

The sample includes 370 listed firms from 50 countries. A GRI standards-based disclosure index was constructed to quantify SR across various reporting media.

The baseline findings show that SC positively affects SR and its three dimensions. Board size also has a significant and positive impact on SR and two of its dimensions (economic and social). Similarly, board independence and CEO duality have a significant but negative association with SR and the same two dimensions. Finally, board gender diversity has no significant impact on SR and all its three dimensions.

The findings that only SC significantly influences SR, and its three dimensions, have important implications for corporate governance reforms internationally to improve SR in countries where such committees are not yet part of the board of directors’ sub-committees.

Overall, this study contributes to board characteristics–SR literature and holds significant theoretical and practical implications.

This study aims to analyze the relationship between Islamic governance (IG) and leverage and examine the interaction of corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRD) in the relationship between IG and leverage.

This study used 444 observational data comprising Asian, European and African Islamic banks (IBs) and analyzed using the regression analysis method to answer the research hypothesis.

This study finds that IG had a significant positive effect on leverage, indicating that it can increase the leverage of IBs. In other words, IG boosts the public confidence to entrust their funds to IBs through current accounts and savings. However, this study shows that CSRD weakens the relationship between IG and leverage. In addition, this study includes the control variables of board size, Islamic supervisory board size and company size, where all three variables showed their effect on leverage. These results were obtained through additional analysis by categorizing our sample based on CSRD.

The results of this study show that IG significantly positively affects IB leverage globally. This can be used as a basis for policymakers to include the ICG variable in analyzing IBs leverage. The weakness of this study is the use of IG variables based on disclosure so that IG components that affect leverage cannot be analyzed accurately. Future research can use the IG variable by using specific IG component values such as the number of meetings, member attendance and remuneration of SSB members in analyzing IB leverage globally.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first study to discuss the interaction of CSRD with IG on leverage in Islamic banking in Asia, Europe and Africa, thus adding to the existing literature on Islamic banking.

This paper evaluates the risk-adjusted returns, selectivity, market timing skills and persistence of the performance of Nigerian pension funds.

Annual return data of 23 pension funds that operated in Nigeria between 2018 and 2022 were obtained from the National Pension Commission (PenCom). Risk-adjusted return was appraised using the Treynor ratio, Sharpe ratio and Jensen alpha, while the Treynor–Mazuy and Henriksson–Merton multiple regression models were applied to decompose selective and timing skills. Performance persistence was assessed using the contingency table and rank correlation models.

Evidence shows that pension funds deliver excess risk-adjusted returns and exhibit selective skills. However, the evidence does not support the presence of timing skills, and there is overwhelming evidence that good (bad) performance does not repeat.

An evaluation of the investment performance of pension funds is crucial for ensuring the financial stability of retirees, maintaining economic stability and making informed investment decisions. It serves the interests of pensioners, pension fund managers, regulators and the broader economy. Our evidence that pension funds generate positive excess returns is a departure from most of the literature on managed funds. We recommend that more Nigerians should leverage the pension fund industry to grow their wealth and prepare for retirement.

This study, to our knowledge, is the first to appraise all the key facets of the investment performance of pension funds in the Nigerian context.

The paper provides a detailed historical account of Douglass C. North's early intellectual contributions and analytical developments in pursuing a Grand Theory for why some countries are rich and others poor.

The author approaches the discussion using a theoretical and historical reconstruction based on published and unpublished materials.

The systematic, continuous and profound attempt to answer the Smithian social coordination problem shaped North's journey from being a young serious Marxist to becoming one of the founders of New Institutional Economics. In the process, he was converted in the early 1950s into a rigid neoclassical economist, being one of the leaders in promoting New Economic History. The success of the cliometric revolution exposed the frailties of the movement itself, namely, the limitations of neoclassical economic theory to explain economic growth and social change. Incorporating transaction costs, the institutional framework in which property rights and contracts are measured, defined and enforced assumes a prominent role in explaining economic performance.

In the early 1970s, North adopted a naive theory of institutions and property rights still grounded in neoclassical assumptions. Institutional and organizational analysis is modeled as a social maximizing efficient equilibrium outcome. However, the increasing tension between the neoclassical theoretical apparatus and its failure to account for contrasting political and institutional structures, diverging economic paths and social change propelled the modification of its assumptions and progressive conceptual innovation. In the later 1970s and early 1980s, North abandoned the efficiency view and gradually became more critical of the objective rationality postulate. In this intellectual movement, North's avant-garde research program contributed significantly to the creation of New Institutional Economics.

This study aims to examine the relationship between blockchain technology (BCT) adoption and firm performance (FIP) mediated by cyber-security risk management (CSRM) in the context of Vietnam, a developing country. Besides, the mediating effect of risk-taking tendency (RTT) has been considered in the BCT–CSRM nexus.

Data is collected using a survey questionnaire of Vietnamese financial firms through strict screening steps to ensure the representativeness of the population. The ending pattern of 449 responses has been used for analysis.

The findings of partial least squares structural equation modeling demonstrated that CSRM has a positive effect on FIP and acts as a mediator in the BCT–FIP nexus. Furthermore, RTT moderates the relationship between BCT and CSRM significantly.

This study introduces the attractive attributes of applying BCT to CSRM. Accordingly, managers should rely on BCT and take advantage of it to improve investment resources, business activities and functional areas to enhance their firm's CSRM. Especially, managers should pay attention to enhancing their RTT, which improves FIP.

This study supplements the previous literature in the context of CSRM by indicating favorable effects of BCT and RTT. Additionally, this study identifies the effectiveness of RTT as well as its moderating role. Ultimately, this paper has been managed as a pioneering empirical study that integrates BCT, RTT and CSRM in the same model in a developing country, specifically Vietnam.