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The global non-attainment of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 indicates the issue of rising gender inequality. Educated women shying away from the labor force is worsening it. The labor market dynamics might shape the female labor force participation (FLFP). The present study recommends a policy framework by analyzing this dynamism across 125 countries over 1990–2020.

The Two-step System Generalized Method of Moments is used to address endogeneity bias. Dynamism in policy environment is captured by relaxing the Ceteris Paribus condition in the empirical model.

Results show that the moderation of labor market factors has increased with the attainment of Secondary and Tertiary Education. Results also highlight that these factors promote FLFP through prospective opportunities but also hinder female participation through employer’s discrimination despite educational attainment.

Studies have examined the role of education on FLFP. However, prior research has not investigated the role of labor market factors in influencing the impact of education on FLFP. The consideration of these factors will help in addressing the global policy lacuna by recommending a policy framework for enhancing FLFP through internalization of the externalities exerted by the labor market factors, and thereby, help the countries attaining the SDG 5 objectives.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the strength of corporate governance and the value of firm-level investment policies following the passage of the Sarbanes–Oxley (SOX) Act of 2002 and the associated changes to the listing requirements of major stock exchanges. In particular the authors seek to examine potential changes in the market’s assessed value of capital expenditures after the passage of the SOX Act relative to before.

The authors employ a difference-in-difference methodology, centred on the year of the passage of the SOX Act to test for the role of governance on the marginal value of capital expenditures. Excess stock returns are calculated by subtracting Fama and French (1993) size and book-to-market portfolio value-weighted returns from the firms’ annual stock returns. Each firm is grouped into one of 25 size and book-to-market portfolios for each year in the sample, with size and the book-to-market ratio proxying for sensitivity to common risk factors in stock returns (Fama and French, 1993).

The authors find that markets responded to the change in governance brought about by the new regulation by altering the value of firm-level capital expenditures in a way that is generally consistent with predictions of agency theory. While the overall findings imply a reduction in agency conflicts post-SOX, there is some evidence that certain firms may have suffered excessive costs of compliance, while still others saw managers become excessively risk averse.

The study has implications related to the efficacy of legislation. Cross-sectional variation in the effect of SOX on the marginal value of capital expenditures suggests that one-size-fits-all legislative approach can have both expected as well as unintended consequences. The study limits its analysis to examining the impact of three significant provisions of the Act. While, the value implications of the Act are largely captured by the selected three, a more comprehensive study could expand on the set of provisions studies to obtain a more granular level impact.

This research should add to the growing body of the literature examining the effect of SOX on firms’ real activities and decisions, as well as contribute to the debate on whether the Act was beneficial or costly to firms. With particular reference to the impact of capital expenditure on firm value, the research contributes to the sparse literature examining the contribution of capital expenditures to firm value and the role that agency conflicts play in this relationship. Additionally, this research adds to the growing body of the literature that examines the costs and benefits of the sweeping new regulations brought on by the adoption of SOX.

Given the importance of investment policy for economic productivity and growth, the insights provided by findings in this research should benefit lawmakers both within the USA as well as in countries where corporate misconduct and fraud is a concern.

This is the first study that examines the impact of the SOX Act on the way capital markets value firm-level investment in capital expenditures. Since use of corporate resources by managers is fraught with agency conflicts, the role of SOX in potentially alleviating this conflict as revealed by the tests in this study are very valuable.

This paper aims to take a step in this direction and use the high dimensional fixed effects and quantile regression discontinuity design to test the managerial Coase theorem, which provides an institutional perspective for us to gauge the impact of private property rights on firm performance and the effect of management costs on intermediate inputs.

This study first uses high dimensional regression discontinuity designs to examine the impact of privatization on firm performance in China between 1998 and 2013.

Results indicate that privatization effects increase average outputs of the firm by around 10% given lower management costs, and management costs increase intermediate inputs by more than 50% points. Using data from annual surveys to test managerial Coase theorem, the authors show that management costs negatively affect the marginal effect of privatization on the average outputs of the firm. The positive impact on the investment in intermediate goods and services is larger in magnitude under higher management costs.

The authors develop the managerial Coase theorem. Today, given lower management costs, private property rights provide an incentive structure for a firm to maximize the value of the assets and expand the boundaries.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relative importance of climate normals (average long-term temperature and precipitation) in explaining net farm revenue per hectare (NRh) for supplementary irrigated and rainfed cocoa farms in Nigeria.

NRh was estimated for 280 cocoa farmers sampled across seven Nigerian states. It was regressed on climate, household socio-economic characteristics and other control variables by using a Ricardian analytical framework. Marginal calculations were used to isolate the effects of climate change (CC) on cocoa farm revenues under supplementary irrigated and rainfed conditions. Future impacts of CC were simulated using Six CORDEX regional climate model (RCM) ensemble between 2036-2065 and 2071-2100.

Results indicate high sensitivity of NRh to Nigerian climate normals depending on whether farms use supplementary irrigation. Average annual temperature increases and precipitation decreases are associated with NRh losses for rainfed farms and gains for supplementary irrigated cocoa farms. Projections of future CC impacts suggest a wide range of NRh outcomes on supplementary irrigated and rainfed farm revenues, demonstrating the importance of irrigation as an effective adaptation strategy in Nigeria.

This paper uses novel data sets for simulating future CC impacts on land values in Nigeria. CORDEX data constitute the most comprehensive RCMs projections available for Africa.

The 1980s and 1990s have seen competition emerge within industries traditionally imbued with monopoly status, for instance, the field of telecommunications. Within these industries, increased competition and the threat of the removal of statutory monopoly has resulted in greater awareness regarding the impact of quality on service and efficient pricing. Discusses, as an example, postal services, an industry of immense importance worldwide, suggests that the emphasis postal services place on the implementation of both timely and reliable service and competitive prices will inherently determine the success they will have withstanding the ever growing threat of international and national competition. While postal services and public utilities share similar peak‐load problems as discussed in the traditional natural monopoly literature, limited deferrability of mail service, together with service differentiated pricing, yields a framework sufficiently different so as to warrant a separate analysis. Presents a model which considers this analysis by developing welfare‐optimal prices, reliabilities and capacities under conditions of stochastic demand subject to reliability constraints on service quality and a minimum profit Ramsey constraint.

The rapid global economic development in the last century, led by industrialization, brings environmental issues to the forefront as a serious concern. While some country-specific studies are undertaken to find the effectiveness of different mechanisms for funding environment-friendly projects, to the authors' knowledge, no study has been conducted to examine the impact of green bonds (GBs) on CO2 emissions for a global sample. Against this backdrop, this study examines the general impact of GBs on CO2 emissions and its differential impact for developed and developing countries and country categorizations based on sustainable development.

The study selects a sample of 44 countries from 2016–2020. The authors use trend analysis and box plots to analyze the present GBs and CO2 emissions scenarios. Further, the panel data regression model is used to examine the overall impact of GBs on CO2 emissions and uncover the variation in such relationships regarding country-level economic and sustainable development. Generalized methods of moments (GMM) and instrumental variables (IV) models are used for robustness.

The yearly trend of GBs is upward at the global level, while CO2 emissions exhibit a marginal decline during the study period. However, significant variations are observed in such trends between developed and developing countries and country-level sustainable development. The authors' regression results show that GBs significantly negatively impact CO2 emissions globally. In addition, the effect of GBs on CO2 emissions is strongly negative for developing countries, while the same influence becomes weak for developed nations. Similar variations exist between countries based on sustainable development.

This is the first study in extant literature to examine such a relationship for a global sample of 44 countries. Further, this study makes a novel contribution by analyzing the variations in the GBs-CO2 emissions nexus for developed and developing countries and country-level sustainable development.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of climate change and variability on agricultural production in Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) where the deleterious impacts of climate change are generally projected to be greatest.

The study used a production function model using Fixed Effect Regression (FER) analysis and then using marginal impact analysis to assess the impact of climate change and variability on agricultural production. Therefore, the study utilized panel data for the period 1961-2009 pooled from 20 countries in MENA region.

Results showed that 1 per cent increase in temperature during winter resulted in 1.12 per cent decrease in agricultural production. It was also observed that 1 per cent increase in temperature variability during winter and spring resulted in 0.09 and 0.14 per cent decrease in agricultural production, respectively. Results also indicated that increasing precipitation during winter and fall season and precipitation variability during winter and summer seasons had negative impact. The estimated parameters of square temperature and precipitation indicated that climate change has significant nonlinear impacts on agricultural production in MENA region.

Despite there are many studies on the impact of climate change on agricultural production, there is a lack of publications to address the economic impact of both climate change and variability on agricultural production in MENA region. Thus, these results are more comprehensive and more informative to policymakers than the results from field trials.

The study aims to analyze the impact of market participation on small paddy farmers' income and consumption expenditure. The study also estimates various determinants affecting the market participation of smallholders. Further, the study computes the efficiency of different paddy marketing channels and identifies the determinants that impact the marketing channel selection of paddy growers in Eastern India.

The study used the propensity score matching (PSM) approach to measure the impact of market participation on farm income and per capita consumption. Further, the study employed Acharya and Aggarwal's composite index approach to estimate the marketing efficiency of various paddy marketing channels. Further, a multinomial logit model was used to determine the marketing channel selection constraints.

The outcomes indicate that market participation positively impacts farm income and consumption expenditure. Education, membership in farmers' organizations, price information and distance to the marketplace significantly affect farmers' market participation. The results show that the producer–retailer marketing channel is the most efficient compared to others. However, most paddy farmers sell paddy to farmgate collectors due to a lack of market information, vehicle ownership, storage system, and inability to take the risk of venturing out of the farmgate into markets.

The study uses primary data and captures only farmers' perspectives to measure the impact of market participation, marketing channel efficiency and determinants for market channel selection. The other stakeholder's perceptions can be included in future studies.

Rarely does any study identifies the efficiency of different marketing channels for paddy farmers in India and includes cognitive factors like risk perception and trust in buyers as constraints for market channel selection.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of migrant workers on the output growth of 15 sub-industries of the manufacturing sector in Malaysia during the period 1990–2008. The paper seeks to answer the following critical questions: what is the impact of migrant workers on the output growth of the manufacturing sector, the leading sector of Malaysian economy? It is possible that migrant workers with different skill levels may have different impacts on output growth of such sector?

The paper employs three econometric techniques: mean group, dynamic fixed effect and the pooled mean group on extended form for Cobb–Douglas production function.

The overall findings suggest that due to the inflow of low skills of migrant workers, output growth in the manufacturing sectors is likely to witnesses a marginal decline in the long run.

The present study complements previous studies by providing a quantitative assessment of the impact of migrant workers on output growth in the manufacturing sector in Malaysia, which is not attempted in extant literature. More importantly, the analysis considers the probability that migrant workers with different skill levels may have different impacts on the growth of output in the manufacturing sector.

This paper explores the nonlinear interactions of research and development (R&D) and advertising and their synergistic effect on firm performance using Tobin's Q. This study also aims to investigate differential synergy patterns under varying levels of exports with a precision impact on performance.

Unlike a conventional statistical approach, this study uniquely presents a neural network approach to explore the dynamic interplay of strategic factors. A multilayer perceptron neural network (MPNN) is designed to capture complex interaction patterns through a predictive analytic process.

This study finds that the impact of R&D and advertising is positive, with a greater effect on high-export firms. Moreover, the experiment results show that the synergy of R&D and advertising goes beyond the formatted positive/negative frame and actually has a reinforcing effect.

This study not only conveys the significant nexus of R&D and advertising for firm performance but also provides industry managers' practical means to assess the joint effect of R&D and advertising on firm performance. The proposed analytic mechanism in particular provides pragmatic decision support to managers in harmonizing their R&D and advertising efforts for a foreseeable impact.

This paper presents an innovative analytic process using the MPNN to explore the synergy between R&D and advertising. In addition to offering new perspectives on R&D and advertising, this study presents pragmatic implications for managing those strategic resources to meet performance targets.