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This paper aims to enhance empirical research on foreign divestment and international relocation by multinational firms are still limited and understudied, although these issues have been a frequent phenomenon and carry important economic implications.

The paper investigates the trends of foreign divestment in South Korea and examines firm- and host country-level determinants in total, manufacture and service sectors from 2010 to 2019.

Using probit model analysis, the main findings are first, among the firm-level factors, sales revenue and parent firm dummy are shown as negative and significant determinants of foreign divestment especially in manufacturing sector. Second, among the country-level factors, gross domestic product growth rate and regulatory quality that measures perceptions of sound policies that promote private sector development are shown negative and significant determinants of foreign divestment. On the other hand, relationship between the environmental policy stringency and foreign divestment is shown positive and significant.

The results suggest that these nonfirm-specific characteristics are also important factors in firm decision to divest from the host country.

The literature on the influence of audit committees (AC) and cosmetic accounting (CA) is scarce. AC plays a unique and vital role in boosting earnings reliability in countries with weaker application of accounting standards or weaker legal protection for investors. AC, therefore, are considered to be one of the essential tools available to directors in supervising management decisions regarding financial reporting. This paper aims to examine the influence of AC characteristics (ACC) on CA and how this relationship is moderated by the audit fee.

This study used probit regression to analyze 1,218 firm-year observations of listed companies in Tehran Stock Exchange from 2014 to 2020.

The results show that AC financial accounting expertise, AC independence, female AC membership and AC tenure were negatively related to CA. The negative relationship is highly pronounced when a firm incurs higher audit fees, and audit fees moderate the relationship between ACC and CA. Results for the robustness checks show that only AC independence was significant, and the results of other characteristics were not significant.

This research was conducted in an Iranian setting where the formation of ACs is on the verge of regulation; therefore, the data used for the study only contains the seven-year period of ACs’ statutory activity. In addition, a lack of consensus on the precise measures of an AC’s effectiveness could be considered as a restrictive factor.

The findings provide an initial insight into the effect AC on CA and moderating effect of audit fee on the relationship between ACC and CA.

A semiparametric stochastic frontier model is proposed for panel data, incorporating several flexible features. First, a constant elasticity of substitution (CES) production frontier is considered without log-transformation to prevent induced non-negligible estimation bias. Second, the model flexibility is improved via semiparameterization, where the technology is an unknown function of a set of environment variables. The technology function accounts for latent heterogeneity across individual units, which can be freely correlated with inputs, environment variables, and/or inefficiency determinants. Furthermore, the technology function incorporates a single-index structure to circumvent the curse of dimensionality. Third, distributional assumptions are eschewed on both stochastic noise and inefficiency for model identification. Instead, only the conditional mean of the inefficiency is assumed, which depends on related determinants with a wide range of choice, via a positive parametric function. As a result, technical efficiency is constructed without relying on an assumed distribution on composite error. The model provides flexible structures on both the production frontier and inefficiency, thereby alleviating the risk of model misspecification in production and efficiency analysis. The estimator involves a series based nonlinear least squares estimation for the unknown parameters and a kernel based local estimation for the technology function. Promising finite-sample performance is demonstrated through simulations, and the model is applied to investigate productive efficiency among OECD countries from 1970–2019.

This paper empirically investigates the demand for pastured eggs in the United States and evaluates the welfare consequences of Japan's egg import tariff reductions for the US consumers.

Using household-level Nielsen Homescan panel data, a fixed-effects Heckman two-stage sample selection model is estimated.

The estimation results ascertain the importance of a set of household socioeconomic characteristics, which are found to influence both the purchase probabilities and the consumption amounts associated with pastured eggs. In addition, demand for pastured eggs is estimated to be inelastic, and pastured eggs are found to be a normal good, more specifically a luxury.

The dataset used in this study reflect purchases only for at-home consumption, lacking information on away-from-home purchases.

Building upon previous research, this study makes the following distinct contributions to the current literature. To the best of our knowledge, it constitutes the first study to empirically examine the demand for pastured eggs, using household-level panel data and an estimation model that not only allows for left-censoring but also controls for regional and time fixed effects. Second, the present study reflects a unique effort in analyzing the adverse welfare consequences of the increased egg prices in the United States brought by a reduction of Japanese import tariffs on US-supplied eggs, focusing specifically on pastured eggs.

Relationships have changed dramatically in the last 50 years. Fewer couples are marrying, more are cohabiting. Reasons for this shift include more attractive labor market opportunities for women and changing social norms, but the shift may have consequences of its own. A number of models predict that those cohabiting will specialize less than those marrying. Panel data on time use – particularly housework time – as well as on the degree of specialization in more narrowly defined household tasks from the 2001–2019 waves of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey are used to test this prediction.

The time use data for men provides only limited supporting evidence for specialization. The results for women are much stronger. Women who marry without first cohabiting increase their reported housework time more than those who enter cohabitations (by 3.7 hours versus 1.2 hours). The latter generally make up a third of the difference if they do marry. Expanding the analysis to other uses of time yields some further evidence of specialization.

Survey responses on the degree of specialization are more informative. The raw data show substantial intrahousehold specialization and further analysis reveals that on average married couples specialize more than cohabiting couples. Adding couple-specific fixed effects reveals that specialization increases when cohabiting couples marry. Interestingly, there does not appear to be a substantial tradeoff between tasks; partners who report specializing more on one task are more likely to report specializing on other tasks as well. Given the important roles couples have in family formation and the labor market, it is important to understand this intrahousehold behavior.

The intensity of carbon emissions has led to the serious problem of global warming, and the consequences in terms of climatic disasters are gaining increasing attention worldwide. As the energy sector is responsible for most global emissions, developing clean energy is crucial to combat climate change. This study aims to examine the relationship between corporate governance and renewable energy (RE) consumption and explore the interaction between RE production and RE use.

The study adopts an econometric framework of a panel model, followed by the robustness check using alternative methods, including logit regressions. The bivariate probit model is used to analyze the interaction between the decision to use and the decision to produce RE. The analysis is based on a sample of 3,896 firms covering 45 countries worldwide.

The results reveal that appropriate governance mechanisms positively impact RE consumption. These include the existence of a sustainability committee; environmental, social and governance-based compensation policy; financial performance-based compensation; sustainability external audit; transparency; board gender diversity; and board independence. Firms with appropriate governance mechanisms are more likely to produce and use RE than others. Finally, while RE use positively impacts firm value and environmental performance, the authors find no significant effect on current profitability.

This study goes beyond previous research by exploring the impact of multiple governance mechanisms. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is also the first study examining the relationship between RE use and firm value. Overall, the findings suggest that RE transition requires, first of all, establishing appropriate governance mechanisms within companies.

This paper aims to examine the interrelation between two innovating strategies (product and process) on total factor productivity (TFP) growth and the dynamic linkages between these strategies, for Colombia. The authors first explore whether ex ante more productive firms are those that introduce innovations (the self-selection hypothesis) and if the introduction of innovations boosts TFP growth (the returns-to-innovation hypothesis). Second, the authors study the firm’s joint dynamic decision to implement process and/or product innovations. The authors use Colombian manufacturing data from the Annual Manufacturing and the Technological Development and Innovation Surveys.

This study uses a four-stage procedure. First, the authors estimate TFP using a modified version of Olley and Pakes (1996) and Levinsohn and Petrin (2003), proposed by De Loecker (2010), that implements an endogenous Markov process where past firm innovations are endogenized. This TFP would be estimated by GMM, Wooldridge (2009). Second, the authors use multivariate discrete choice models to test the self-selection hypothesis. Third, the authors explore, using multi-value treatment evaluation techniques, the life span of the impact of innovations on productivity growth (returns to innovation hypothesis). Fourth, the authors analyse the joint likelihood of implementing process and product innovations using dynamic panel data bivariate probit models.

The investigation reveals that the self-selection effect is notably more pronounced in the adoption of process innovations only, as opposed to the adoption of product innovations only or the simultaneous adoption of both process and product innovations. Moreover, our results uncover distinct temporal patterns concerning innovation returns. Specifically, process innovations yield immediate benefits, whereas implementing both product innovations only and jointly process and product innovations exhibit significant, albeit delayed, advantages. Finally, the analysis confirms the existence of dynamic interconnections between the adoption of process and product innovations.

The contribution of this work to the literature is manifold. First, the authors thoroughly investigate the relationship between the implementation of process and product innovations and productivity for Colombian manufacturing explicitly recognising that firms’ decisions of adopting product and process innovations are very likely interrelated. Therefore, the authors start exploring the self-selection and the returns to innovation hypotheses accounting for the fact that firms might implement process innovations only, product innovations only and both process and product innovations. In the analysis of the returns of innovation, the fact that firms may choose among a menu of three innovation strategies implies the use of evaluation methods for multi-value treatments. Second, the authors study the dynamic inter-linkages between the decisions to implement process and/or product innovations, that remains under studied, at least for emerging economies. Third, the estimation of TFP is performed using an endogenous Markov process, where past firms’ innovations are endogenized.

This paper aims to examine how different types of corporate political connections (PCs) affect auditor choice decisions (and, therefore, audit quality) and audit opinions following the 2013 Egyptian uprising.

This paper utilizes a unique hand-collected dataset on the type of PCs of Egyptian listed companies from 2014 to 2019. Several analyses are employed to test the hypotheses, including logit regression, probit regression and generalized linear mixed models (GLMM). A number of additional analyses are conducted to ensure the robustness of the results, including the instrumental variables (IVs) probit models and propensity score matching (PSM).

The results show that firms' choice of auditor and audit opinion is heavily influenced by firms' PCs. Companies with PCs through boards of directors and major shareholders hire Big 4 audit firms to enhance corporate legitimacy; however, government-linked companies usually retain non-Big 4 audit firms to avoid increased transparency and to conceal improper activities, including tunneling and rent-seeking. Further, the results indicate that companies with PCs through boards of directors or major shareholders are more likely to receive favorable audit opinions, whereas government-owned businesses are less likely to receive such opinions.

This study provides additional evidence to policymakers that binding regulations and guidelines are necessary to oversee politically connected firms (PCFs) and to enhance governance and investor protection.

This study provides the first empirical evidence on how corporate PCs influence the choice of auditors and the opinions of audit firms in Egypt. This paper also sheds light on the impact of different types of corporate PCs on the choice of auditors and audit opinions.

The escalating levels of greenhouse gas emissions have become a growing global concern, with household energy consumption emerging as a significant contributor. To develop effective public policies, it is crucial to understand the energy-saving behavior of households. This study delves into the determinants of energy-saving practices in a developing country.

The authors chose a multivariate probit model, as it allowed to look after possible correlations among seven energy-saving practices within households.

The findings underscore the significant influence of sociodemographic variables, such as gender, civil status, income and education, on energy-saving practices. Furthermore, the authors discovered that households where the head actively volunteers in social organizations are more likely to adopt energy-saving behaviors. Additionally, internet access positively contributes to pro-environmental behavior. This research reveals that certain energy-saving practices are interconnected, acting as complements or substitutes.

Recommendations for public policy include prioritizing education in rural areas to boost energy-saving practices, improving internet access in nonurban regions and promoting citizen involvement in social organizations to enhance environmental awareness and encourage energy-saving behavior. The authors contribute to literature evidencing that certain energy-saving practices are not independent of each other, they are rather complementary and, in some cases, substitutes.

Recommendations for public policy include prioritizing education in rural areas to boost energy-saving practices, improving Internet access in nonurban regions and promoting citizen involvement in social organizations to enhance environmental awareness and encourage energy-saving behavior.

Previous studies have overlooked these interdependencies, highlighting the necessity of a system of equations to yield more efficient estimates by considering correlations between error terms.

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of conscientiousness on entrepreneurship over and above the impact of other factors that are associated with entrepreneurship in the literature.

The design uses household responses from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) biennial survey that follows the same heads of households over time to measure their conscientiousness, businesses owned and other demographic and financial characteristics. Ordinary least squares (OLS), Probit and Poisson regression techniques are applied at the head of household and state level to examine the relationship.

The results show heads of households’ conscientiousness positively relating to the average number of businesses owned, beyond other Big Five traits and the impact of other characteristics. A one-standard deviation increase in conscientiousness is significantly associated with a 0.012 increase in the number of businesses owned. This association is robust to alternative regression specifications and variable measurements.

The results are original to the finance literature, complementing studies by linking intrinsic head of household-level traits to entrepreneurship while controlling for external financial and demographic factors. The study also attempts to externally validate previous findings using aggregate-level outcomes. The data and setting used to measure personality traits as well as entrepreneurial outcomes are original to the entrepreneurship literature, validating previous findings.