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This study aimed to explore the determining factors for green bond markets in ASEAN plus three countries. In contrast to previous publications that primarily examined the incentives for green bonds and institutional differences among economies, the analysis focused on the role of competition among sub-financial sectors in fostering the growth of green bond markets.

This study adopted Driscoll and Kraay fixed effect panel methods to account for country-level heterogeneity and enhance efficiency, using quarterly data from 2016 to 2022.

The findings showed that healthy competition among sub-financial sectors was crucial for the growth of green bond markets. Growth in specific sub-financial sectors such as brown corporate bond and stock markets as well as banks contributed positively to these markets. Variables related to market microstructure also had no significant impact on green bonds but macroeconomic factors did.

The findings suggested that governments should promote healthy competition among sub-financial sectors and implement diverse policies to ensure the sustainable growth of green bond markets.

This study further pioneered the importance of competition among sub-financial sectors for the development of green bond markets.

Wockhardt Ltd. is a global, research-based pharmaceuticals and biotechnology company headquartered in India. The company went through an ambitious period of growth, mainly using acquisitions as its primary inorganic growth strategy until the 2008 financial crisis. This period saw Wockhardt struggling to meet its financial obligations while at the same time confronting legal and regulatory challenges. Post this period, the company executed several strategic changes to its businesses to facilitate a recovery. The case asks students to assess Wockhardt’s strategic response to the crisis and its future success as a pharmaceutical company in an industry marked by intense competition.

The case is based on secondary data sources and publicly available information. The company’s data and its history over the past six decades have been examined. Newspaper articles, journal articles, company annual reports and analyst firm reports have been used to gather information and have been cited accordingly. Financial data have been obtained from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) Prowess database.

The case highlights some interesting findings from Wockhardt’s handling of its financial problems and subsequent recovery process. Key insights come from its multi-pronged strategy to first stabilize and then continue to expand its core pharmaceuticals business by identifying new markets for its products and alternate channels for growth.

Previous cases on Wockhardt have focused on the financial aspects of the crises, particularly the corporate debt restructuring (CDR) process that was undertaken, the challenges of hedging foreign currency risk and the drawbacks of using foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs). In this case, we emphasize the unique aspects of Wockhardt’s business strategy, from its initial acquisition-based inorganic growth, its crisis response and management and finally the strategic execution of its recovery and continued expansion.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the latest directives of the European Parliament and the Council – MiFID II and MiFIR – on markets in financial instruments in response to the growth of dark pools in European equity markets.

This paper examines the impact of the new regulatory packages on European equity markets by identifying areas where the legislation is effective and comparing these changes in EU legislation with US legislation on dark pools.

This paper find that the MiFID II and MiFIR directives, implemented by the European Securities and Markets Authority to address these concerns, have reduced information asymmetry between market participants, thereby increasing competition between regulated markets and alternative trading facilities.

Increased competition can improve market quality, which has practical implications for financial market regulation and policy formulation.

These findings are novel in the existing literature on high frequency trading through dark pools. They improve the understanding of dark trading and its impact on competition and market efficiency. In addition, this research can assist policymakers in designing effective financial market regulation. The economic analysis of legislation also helps regulators assess the impact of new legal provisions on the functioning of capital markets.

This study delves into the nuanced implications of short-sale constraints on stock prices within the context of stock market efficiency. While existing research has explored this relationship, inconsistencies persist in their findings. The purpose of this study is to conduct a comprehensive review of literature to elucidate the reasons behind these disparities.

A systematic review of existing theoretical and empirical studies was conducted following the PRISMA method. The analysis centered on discerning the factors contributing to the divergence in projected stock prices due to these constraints. Key areas explored included assumptions related to expectations homogeneity, revisions, information uncertainty, trading motivations and fluctuations in supply and demand of risky assets.

The review uncovered multifaceted reasons for the disparities in findings regarding the influence of short-sale constraints on stock prices. Variations in assumptions related to market expectations, coupled with fluctuations in perceived information uncertainty and trading motivations, were identified as pivotal factors contributing to differing projections. Empirical evidence disparities stemmed from the use of proxies for short-sale constraints, varied sample periods, market structure nuances, regulatory changes and the presence of option trading.

This study emphasizes the significance of not oversimplifying the impact of short-sale constraints on stock prices. It highlights the need to understand these effects within the broader context of market structure and methodological considerations. By delineating the intricate interplay of factors affecting stock prices under short-sale constraints, this review provides a nuanced perspective, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding in the field.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused severe challenges to ethnic minorities in the UK. While the experiences of migrants are both complex and varied depending on individuals' social class, race, cultural proximity to the host country and acculturation levels, more in-depth studies are necessary to fully understand how COVID-19 affects specific migrant groups and their health. Taiwanese migrants were selected because they are an understudied group. Also, there were widespread differences in pandemic management between the UK and Taiwan, making this group an ideal case for understanding how their acculturation journey can be disrupted by a crisis.

Qualitative data were collected at two different time points, at the start of the UK pandemic (March/April 2020) and six months on (October/November 2020), to explore migrant coping experiences over time. Theoretically, the authors apply acculturation theory through the lens of coping, while discussing health-consumption practices, as empirical evidence.

Before the outbreak of the pandemic, participants worked hard to achieve high levels of integration in the UK. The pandemic changed this; participants faced unexpected changes in the UK’s sociocultural structures. They were forced to exercise the layered and complex “coping with coping” in a hostile host environment that signalled their new marginalised status. They faced impossible choices, from catching a life-threatening disease to being seen as overly cautious. Such experience, over time, challenged their integration to the host country, resulting in a loss of faith in the UK’s health system, consequently increasing separation from the host culture and society.

It is important to note that the Taiwanese sample recruited through Facebook community groups is biased and has a high level of homogeneity. These participants were well-integrated, middle-class migrants who were highly educated, relatively resourceful and active on social media. More studies are needed to fully understand the impact on well-being and acculturation of migrants from different cultural, contextual and social backgrounds. This being the case, the authors can speculate that migrants with less resource are likely to have found the pandemic experience even more challenging. More studies are needed to fully understand migrant experience from different backgrounds.

Public health policymakers are advised to dedicate more resources to understand migrants' experiences in the host country. In particular, this paper has shown how separation, especially if embraced temporarily, is not necessarily a negative outcome to be corrected with specific policies. It can be strategically adopted by migrants as a way of defending their health and well-being from an increasingly hostile environment. Migrants' home country experience provides vicarious learning opportunities to acquire good practices. Their voices should be encouraged rather than in favour of a surprising orthodox and rather singular approach in the discussion of public health management.

The paper has clear public health policy implications. Firstly, public health policymakers are advised to dedicate more resources to understand migrants' experiences in the host country. Acknowledging migrants' voice is a critical first step to contribute to the development of a fair and inclusive society. Secondly, to retain skilful migrants and avoid a future brain-drain, policymakers are advised to advance existing infrastructure to provide more incentives to support and retain migrant talents in the post-pandemic recovery phase.

This paper reveals how a group of previously well-integrated migrants had to exercise “coping with coping” during the COVID crisis. This experience, over time, challenged their integration to the host country, resulting in a loss of faith in the UK’s health system, consequently increasing separation from the host culture and society. It contributes to the understanding of acculturation by showing how a such crisis can significantly disrupt migrants' acculturation journey, challenging them to re-acculturate and reconsider their identity stance. It shows how separation was indeed a good option for migrants for protecting their well-being from a newly hostile host environment.

As social infrastructures, public libraries are increasingly recognised as providing more than access to books and information; librarians’ work is importantly centred around practices of care. However, the ways in which they provide care is poorly researched, let alone conceptualised. This paper explores how this important part of librarians’ daily work is practiced through the lens of infrastructuring.

The paper first theoretically discusses the concepts of social infrastructuring, care and tinkering. Then, it turns to ethnographic research conducted in the public library networks of three European cities: Vienna (Austria), Rotterdam (the Netherlands) and Malmö (Sweden). The paper comprises empirical materials from all three countries and unpacks 16 librarians’ daily working routines of care through participant observations.

The empirical analysis resulted in three modes of social infrastructuring in public libraries: (1) maintaining, (2) building connections and (3) drawing boundaries. Practices of care are prominent in each of these infrastructuring modes: librarians infrastructure the library with and via their care practices. Whilst care practices are difficult to quantify and verbalise, they are valuable for library patrons. By using the concept of tinkering, the article conceptualises librarians’ infrastructuring enactments as crucial community-building aspects of libraries.

By focusing on the enactment of social infrastructuring, the paper goes beyond a descriptive approach to understanding public libraries as important social infrastructures. Rather, the paper unpacks how libraries come into being as infrastructuring agencies by highlighting what librarians do and say. Our international study articulates the importance of care practices in public libraries across different national contexts.