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In a bid to enhance the stability of banks, supervisory authorities in sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) have also adopted international bank regulatory standards based on the Basel core principles. This paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of these regulations in mitigating Bank risk (instability) in SSA. The focus of empirical analysis is on examining the implications of four regulations (capital, activity restrictions, supervisory power and market discipline) on risk-taking behaviour of banks.

This paper uses two dimensions of financial stability in relation to two different sources of bank risk: solvency risk and liquidity risk. This paper uses information from the World Bank Regulatory Survey database to construct regulation indices on activity restrictions and the three regulations pertaining to the three pillars of Basel II, i.e. capital, supervisory power and market discipline. The paper then uses a two-step system generalised method of moments estimator to estimate the impact of each regulation on solvency and liquidity risk.

The overall results show that: regulations pertaining to capital (Pillar 1) and market discipline (Pillar 3) are effective in reducing solvency risk; and regulations pertaining to supervisory power (Pillar 2) and activity restrictions increase liquidity risk (i.e. reduce bank stability).

Given some evidence from other studies which show that market power (competition) tends to condition the effect of regulations on bank stability, it would have been more informative to examine whether this is really the case in SSA, given the low levels of competition in some countries. This study is limited in this regard.

The key policy implications from the study findings are three-fold: bank supervisory agencies in SSA should prioritise the adoption of Pillars 1 and 3 of the Basel II framework as an effective policy response to enhance the stability of the banking system; a universal banking model is more stability enhancing; and there is a trade-off between stronger supervisory power and liquidity stability that needs to be properly managed every time regulatory agencies increase their supervisory mandate.

This paper provides new evidence on which Pillars of the Basel II regulatory framework are more effective in reducing bank risk in SSA. This paper also shows that the way regulations affect solvency risk is different from that of liquidity risk – an approach that allows for case specific policy interventions based on the type of bank risk under consideration. Ignoring this dual dimension of bank stability can thus lead to erroneous policy inferences.

Using bank-level data over the 1994–2015 period, the authors aim to investigate the role of bank-specific factors on credit risk in Italy by considering two different groups of banks, namely, cooperative and non-cooperative (commercial and popular), in different local markets.

Relying on highly territorially disaggregated data at labour market areas’ level, the authors estimate the impact of the role of bank-specific factors on credit risk in Italy from the estimation of a fixed-effect estimator. Non-performing loans to total loans has been used as a proxy of credit risk; the bank-specific factors are as follows: growth of loans, reflecting credit policy; log of total assets, controlling for banks’ size; loans to total assets, reflecting the volume of credit market; equity to total assets, capturing the solvency of banks and reflecting their capital strength; return on assets, reflecting the profitability of banks; deposits to loans, reflecting the intermediation cost; cost of total assets, reflecting the banks’ efficiency or volume of intermediation cost.

The empirical findings suggest that regulatory credit policy, capitalisation, volume of credit and volume of intermediation costs are the main bank-specific factors affecting non-performing loans. Nevertheless, the present analysis suggests that the behaviour of cooperative banks’ behaviour seems to be in line with that of commercial rather than popular banks, casting doubts about the feasibility of their credit policies. It turns out that recent reforms involving popular and cooperative banks represent the first step toward the enhancement of the stability and efficiency of the Italian banking system. While the present study’s benchmark results are not particularly affected by the degree of competition in the banking sector and by banks’ size, it shows that both cooperative and non-cooperative banks have undertaken more prudent credit policies after the advent of the financial crisis and the introduction of the Basel regulation.

The relationship between bank-specific factors and credit risk has been analysed using a rich sample of cooperative, commercial and popular banks in Italy over the 1994–2015 period. The authors rely on labour market areas being sub-regional geographical areas where the bulk of the labour force lives and works. The contribution is motivated by the financial distress experienced after the 2008 financial crisis, which has significantly hit the Italian banking system and cooperative banks in particular.

The purpose of the paper is to study the relevance of macroprudential policies (MPPs) in influencing bank lending in small open economies with dual banking systems.

In the analysis, the author employed the dynamic panel data methodology as compared to alternate techniques since it is able to address potential endogeneity challenges.

Using quarterly data from the period 2002–2020, the author finds that MPPs are highly effective in containing the growth of public credit, whereas its impact on private credit is much less effective. The disaggregated findings reveal that macroprudential measures are less effective in containing the growth of private credit by Islamic banks.

The majority of studies on MPPs are focused on emerging and advanced economies, limiting their policy appeal from the standpoint of small open economies. In this connection, this paper contributes to the literature on the relevance of such policies for a small open economy with a dual banking system and significant hydrocarbon exports. The paper's analysis therefore holds relevance for similar economies, both in the region and elsewhere, on the role and relevance of MPPs with emphasis on Islamic banks.

Adolescent mental health is a global concern. There is an urgent need for creative, multimedia interventions reflecting adolescent culture to promote mental health literacy and well-being. This study aims to assess the impact of a film-based intervention on adolescent mental health literacy, well-being and resilience.

A pretest-posttest intervention with a multi-methods evaluation was used. A convenience sample of ten schools facilitated students aged 15–17 years to engage in an online intervention (film, post-film discussion, well-being Webinar). Participants completed surveys on well-being, resilience, stigma, mental health knowledge and help-seeking. Five teachers who facilitated the intervention participated in post-implementation interviews or provided a written submission. Analysis included paired-t-test and effect size calculation and thematic analysis.

Matched pretest-posttest data were available on 101 participants. There were significant increases in well-being, personal resilience and help-seeking attitudes for personal/emotional problems, and suicidal ideation. Participants’ free-text comments suggested the intervention was well-received, encouraging them to speak more openly about mental health. Teachers similarly endorsed the intervention, especially the focus on resilience.

Intinn shows promise in improving adolescents’ mental health literacy and well-being. Film-based interventions may encourage adolescents to seek professional help for their mental health, thus facilitating early intervention.

The entrepreneurial capability (EC) environment refers to the general social and economic settings of a given local/regional entrepreneurship environment. The primary purpose of this study is to uncover key indicators of the EC milieu and test these components empirically within the context of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)-5 economies to elucidate the current state of their EC environments, at the regional and national levels. To this end, the aim of this study is twofold. First, this work endeavors to explicate the determinants of EC, with aims of elucidating its association to commercial opportunities in (ASEAN)-5 economies, namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Next, this study applies the developed theory, including the identified determinants of EC to empirically test the efficiency and imperative coefficients of variables that have an impact on perceived entrepreneurial capabilities within a given environment.

This research applies two frontier models, namely, the consistent estimation of fixed-effects and linear transformation stochastic frontier models, to assess the coefficients of significant EC variables for the panel sample. Data corresponding to the assessed variables were retrieved from the databases of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) – 2016 and the World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY) – 2016, for the period, 2010-2016.

The attained results suggest that factors corresponding to the variables “Entrepreneurship as a good career choice” and “perceived opportunities” have played a significantly positive role on the EC environment of ASEAN 05, although findings suggest both factors may still be improved upon. Conversely, the “fear of failure rate” factor was shown to have exerted a negative impact on the efficiency of the EC environment of ASEAN 05. Other important variables – such as intellectual property rights, university education and knowledge transfer rate – were shown to generate a positive impact on the EC environment of these economies.

This study makes an important contribution to the entrepreneurship literature and can stimulate policymakers to rethink the EC settings of ASEAN-05 in their pursuit of an innovation-driven region.