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The purpose of this paper is to theorize the heightened exposure to information via the internet can lead citizens to be more critical about political conditions in their countries because using social media increases the likelihood of being exposed to dissident information. Further, the authors argue that the degree to which information is restricted, or internet access is limited, across countries can decrease this effect simply because the likelihood of exposure to a dissident flow is diminished.

The authors used survey data from the 2010 Latino Barometer to estimate a series of multilevel models to test whether citizens’ attitudes about the political conditions and about democracy in their respective countries worsen, and whether this effect is stronger in countries with higher internet freedom.

The results confirm that social media use has a negative influence on citizens’ attitudes about their national political conditions. In addition, respondents from those countries with more internet freedom tended to have more positive attitudes about their democracy and political conditions, generally. However, as a result of more internet freedom, the negative effects of internet and social media use on these attitudes was more pronounced in countries with more internet freedom.

These results suggest that the flow of information via the internet has substantial effect on how people feel about their government. This could be consequential for political stability, particularly in countries the conditions are not favorable. That said, these results also suggest that governments can actively decrease the odds of this dissidence building by controlling the flow of information.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is an important means of boosting the agricultural sectors of developing economies. The first necessary step to formulate effective public policies to encourage agricultural FDI inflow to a host country is to develop a comprehensive understanding of the main determinants of FDI inflow to the agricultural sector, which is the main objective of the present study.

In view of this, we take a comprehensive approach to exploring the macroeconomic and institutional determinants of FDI inflow to the agricultural sector by examining a large panel data set on agricultural FDI inflows of 37 countries, investigating both groups of developed and developing countries, incorporating a large list of potentially relevant macroeconomic and institutional variables, and applying panel-data econometric models and estimation structures, including pooled, fixed-effects and random-effects regression models.

The general pattern of our findings implies that the degree of openness of an economy has a negative effect on FDI inflows to agricultural sectors, suggesting that the higher the degree of openness in an economy, the lower the level of agricultural protection against foreign trade and imports, and thus the less incentive for FDI to inflow to the agricultural sector of the economy. Additionally, our results show that economic growth (as an indicator of the rate of market-size growth in the host economy) and per-capita real GDP (as an indicator of the standard of living in the host country) are both positively related to FDI inflows to agricultural sectors. Our other results suggest that agricultural FDI tends to flow more to developing countries in general and more to those with higher standards of living and income levels in particular.

FDI inflow has not received much attention with respect to the identification of its main determinants in the context of agricultural sectors. Additionally, there are very few panel-data studies on the determinants of FDI, and even more surprisingly, there are no such studies on the main determinants of FDI inflow to the agricultural sector. We have taken a comprehensive approach by studying FDI inflow variations across countries as well as over time.

In view of discussion of two crises, Asian Financial crisis, 1997 and global meltdown, 2008 spreading over more than two decades, the objective of this article is to present econometrically whether productivity growth across countries can be a remedial measure toward tackling global recession pervaded during recent two or three decades worldwide and also to shed light on the aspect of whether productivity can truly act as a driver of growth of selected six economies like Korea Republic, Japan, India, China, USA, UK, and world economy as a whole. The panel data for the six selected countries for the period 1990–2018 were constructed keeping eyes on the 1997 Asian financial crisis and then the 2008–09 global economic crisis and a random effects model was applied after Hausman test. The empirical findings disclosed that the impacts on the growth of economies (represented by growth of GDP) from the growth rates of the manufacturing sector, labor productivity of manufacturing sector, and labor quantity are positive and statistically significant; while the effects of growth of the capital deepening and labor composition on economic growth of those sampled countries are statistically significant but negative. Some key factors that are likely to affect future productivity performance are centered on some issues like facilitating global learning spillovers; allowing productive firms to thrive; and making the most of human capital that should be taken care of.

In this chapter, we are among the first to investigate the actual course of affairs in AGMs with respect to shareholder forum rights. In the first part of the chapter, we provide descriptive statistics on the use of the right to ask questions and speak in AGMs in the Netherlands. We find that in an average meeting there are around 42 questions and remarks made by around 8 shareholders. Most of these questions and remarks seem to be relevant; with a categorization framework of 14 topics, we could already identify over 50% of these questions and remarks. However, we also find that the average number of shareholders that physically ask questions is only 8. Next, we consider the determinants of the use of these forum rights. In several panel data analyses with a Poisson distribution and a negative binomial distribution, we, inter alia, found that the ‘importance of the meeting’ generally contributes to the amount of questions and remarks and the number of shareholders that actively engage in discussions. We have also found that the number of speakers – and the number of private investors – that actively attend the AGM depends on previous attendance numbers. This may imply that there is a small base of very active (private) investors in the Netherlands. We conclude that the forum function of AGMs is definitely relevant, but given the low number of shareholders that make use of these rights, amendments may be considered.

While the relationship between military expenditure and economic growth during the Cold War period is well-researched, relatively less is known on the issue for the post-Cold War era. Equally how the relationship varies with respect to exposure to conflict is also not fully examined. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the causal impact of military expenditure on growth in the presence of internal and external threats for the period 1990-2013 using data from 70 developing countries.

The main estimates are based on the generalized method of moments (GMM) regression model. But for comparison purposes, the authors also report estimates using fixed and random effects as well as pooled cross-section regressions. The regression specification accounts for non-linear effect of military expenditure allowing for interaction with conflict variable (where distinction is made between external and internal conflict).

The analysis indicates that methods as well as model specification matter in studying the effect of military spending on growth. Full sample estimates based on GMM, fixed, and random effects models suggest a negative and statistically significant effect of military expenditure. However, fixed effects estimate becomes insignificant for low-income countries. The effect of military spending is also insignificant in the cross-sectional OLS model if conflict is not considered. When the regression model additionally controls for conflict, the effect of military spending conditional upon (internal) conflict exposure is significant and positive. No such effect is present conditional upon external threat.

One important limitation of the analysis is the small sample size – the authors had to restrict analysis to 70 low and middle-income countries for which the authors could construct post-Cold War panel data on military expenditure along with information on armed conflict exposure (the later from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, 2015).

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first paper to examine the joint impact of military expenditure and conflict on economic growth in post-Cold War period in a sample of developing countries. Moreover, an attempt is made to review and revisit the large Cold War literature where studies vary considerably in terms findings. A key reason for this is the somewhat ad hoc choice of econometric methods – most rely on cross-section data and rarely conduct sensitivity analysis. The authors instead rely on panel data estimates but also report results based on naïve models for comparison purposes.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential biases in research designs used to assess the efficacy of sex offender treatment.

In all, 50 treatment studies (n=13,886) were examined using a random effects meta-analysis model.

Results indicated a positive effect of treatment for both sexual (OR=0.58, 95%, CI 0.45-0.74, p < 0.0001), and general recidivism (OR=0.54, 95%, CI 0.42-0.69, p < 0.0001), indicating that the likelihood of being reconvicted after treatment was around half compared to no treatment. RCTs showed no significant effect for sexual or general, recidivism. Significant effects were found for non-RCT designs (i.e. incidental cohort, completers vs non-completers designs). Assignment based on need (i.e. giving treatment to those who were high-risk) indicated a negative effect of treatment.

The results highlight the importance of considering study design when considering treatment efficacy.

The current research reports studies identified up until 2009, and examined both published, and unpublished, research originating from a variety of samples employing a random effects model. Consequently, it can be argued that the results are both original and are reflective not only of identified studies, but are also representative of a random set of observations drawn from the common population distribution (Fleiss, 1993). The results of the study suggest that what is required in future research is methodological rigour, and consistency, in the way in which researchers measure the effectiveness of sexual offender treatment.

Typically, the graphic paper demand is being forecasted with the development of GDP, population and the price of paper. Recently, diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICT) has been identified as one possible driver of its consumption. It could be assumed that in emerging markets paper demand is a combination of these classical and new factors.

The research examines the situation in the emerging Russian market with panel data regression analysis, accompanied with system dynamics simulation using Monte Carlo sensitivity analysis. So, the paper integrates different quantitative approaches to sketch long‐term paper demand forecasts through different alternative scenarios.

Results show that mobile telephones are complementary to both newsprint and magazine paper demand and the internet is a substitute, but these two factors are still relatively small compared to the effect of GDP per capita.

This research is limited to Russian markets, and in order to have more generalization power, it should be repeated in other emerging economies like, for example, former East European countries and Asia. However, used data in our analysis is longitudinal and has numerous observation points; therefore giving more reliability over the results.

The research work is seminal from the methodological point of view: it incorporates numerous quantitative methods to produce demand forecast using Monte Carlo simulation. Also, research studies taking into account the impact of ICT on emerging markets concerning paper demand are rare.

As one of the main purposes of financial statements is to provide relevant information for investors, relationships between share prices and accounting variables have been widely researched. Early studies focus mainly on earnings, but attention has turned in recent years to valuation models that include the book value of the equity. Many of these studies cite the residual income model as their theoretical base and, with the growing emphasis on shareholder value, residual income measures are more commonly used in the business community to track financial performance. Given such trends, the purpose of this paper is to review the theoretical background of the residual income model and discuss results of empirical studies that use it.

The study seeks an understanding of how published accounting information relates to share prices in the developed market in Asia, outside Japan. More specifically, the study aims to extend the international literature in market based accounting research by examining empirical evidence on relationships between share prices and the two summary accounting variables of equity book value and earnings for firms listed on the stock exchange in Malaysia.

The findings imply that, the two accounting variables summarising the balance sheet and the income statement, respectively, are significant factors in the valuation process, and that managers are justified in using the accounting system as a primary source of information for monitoring financial performance.

These findings should be of interest to other researchers, and to managers and investors who currently use or are planning to use residual income to monitor business performance.

This paper investigates the effect of household size, and in particular of the number of children of different age groups, on poverty, defined as being in a situation of low income. We apply various static and dynamic probit models to control for the endogeneity of the variables of interest and to account for unobserved heterogeneity, state dependence, and serially correlated error components. Using Luxembourg longitudinal data, we show that the number of children of different age groups significantly affects the probability of being poor. However, the magnitude of the effect varies across different specifications. In addition, we find strong evidence of true poverty persistency due to past experience, spurious poverty persistency due to individual heterogeneity, and transitory random shocks.

This chapter investigates which factors contribute to (small) shareholder attendance using a hand-collected panel data set with information about turnout rates, voting behaviour and ownership structures of companies that are listed in seven Member States. We document how ownership concentration positively affects total shareholder turnout, but has a negative effect on small shareholder turnout. Voting power also affects small shareholder turnout rates; the greater small shareholder voting power, the greater their eagerness to vote. In addition, total and small shareholder turnout is higher the more important the meeting agenda. And, small shareholders tend to free-ride on large institutional shareholders and corporate insiders, but the magnitude of the free-rider effect is larger for the latter category of blockholders. Our results provide some important insights for the debate on shareholder rights and the role of the AGM in corporate governance. The results show that, despite the criticism, the AGM still plays an important role in small shareholder monitoring. Some topics seem to clearly motivate small shareholders to attend, while others are less relevant. Policy makers can stimulate shareholder monitoring by focusing on the factors that are determined in this study, but it is important to consider possible endogeneity issues as well.