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This article analyzes the hypothesis that analysts issue higher long-term earnings growth (LTG) forecasts following a market-wide investor sentiment.

This study analyzed 193 publicly traded Brazilian firms listed on B3 (Brasil, Bolsa, Balcão), totaling 2,291 observations. To address the potential selection bias resulting from analysts' preference for more liquid firms, this study used the Heckman model in the analysis with samples with only one analyst and the entire sample. The study also applied other robustness tests to ensure the reliability of the findings.

The results suggest that market-wide investor sentiment influences LTG when the firm's stocks are difficult to value. Market optimism did not reflect five-year profit growth after the forecast issue, suggesting lower forecast accuracy during high investor sentiment values.

Volatile-earnings firms have relevant implications in LTG forecasts during bullish moments. According to the study’s evidence, investors' decisions and policymakers' and regulators' rules should consider analysts' expertise as independent information when considering LTG as input for valuation models, even under market optimism.

This paper contributes to the literature on the influence of investor sentiment on analysts' forecasts by incorporating two crucial elements in the discussion: the scenario free from herding behavior, as usually only one analyst issues LGT forecast for Brazilian firms, and the analysis of research hypotheses incorporates the difficulty of pricing a firm given the uncertainty of its earnings as an explanation to bullish forecast.

This study aims to analyze to what extent distance education is feasible and efficient with the limited technological infrastructure in Egypt. The study answers this question from the perspective of households' preparedness level regarding possessing information and communication technologies (ICTs). In addition, it assesses whether the pattern of students' ICT ownership is influenced by disability- and socioeconomic-based inequality in education and whether the pattern of ICT ownership exacerbates such biases.

A three-stage probit model with double sample selection (PMDSS) was applied to estimate the factors likely to influence ICT possession, considering the selection process for school enrollment and education continuation. The authors utilized nationally representative data from the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey 2018.

About 40% of students aged 12–25 did not have ICTs. Most socioeconomically poor households, particularly those living in Upper Egypt, were the least likely to obtain ICTs and rely on distance education. In addition, female students, particularly those with disabilities, had the lowest chance of benefitting from distance learning.

The persistent structural deprivation of school enrollment and educational progression has led to the positive selection of well-off children in education, which is extended to ICT possession and internet use. Without addressing these structural biases, the study suggests that distance education will likely exacerbate educational inequalities.

The study analyzed the extent to which Egyptian families were prepared in 2018 regarding ICT possessions for distance education for their children, particularly those with disabilities. Furthermore, it investigated whether access to distance learning was influenced by disability- and socioeconomic-based inequalities in education.

This study investigated the gender wage gap in Nigeria by analysing two waves of household surveys (in 2003–2004 and 2018–2019) in order to understand the dynamics or polarisation of the labour market in Nigeria in terms of the gender wage gap over time.

The study applied an extension of Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition that relies on the re-centred influence function (RIF) regressions to analyse the gender wage gap at all points along the wage distribution.

The results unambiguously show that there is a significant gender wage gap in Nigeria at all points along the wage distribution, such that for the two surveys used and after nearly two decades, men still earn more than women. That is, the log wage difference between males and females is statistically significant at all points between the 10th and the 90th quantiles. In 2003–2004 period, the authors found that most of the wage difference was significantly accounted for by the wage structure effect, whilst the composition effect was negative and only significant at the bottom of the wage distribution. Since the 2018–2019 period, the authors found that there has been a visible change such that most of the gender wage gap is now accounted for by the composition effect at all points along the wage distribution. Another interesting finding is that there has been a general decline in the gender wage gap along the entire wage distribution, such that inequality was higher in 2003–2004 than in 2018–2019. This decline is bigger at the top than at the bottom of the wage distribution. The authors also found that, contrary to some of the studies on the wage gap, the raw gaps for the two surveys appear to show inverted U-shape, but the gap has fallen quickly since the 2018–2019 period. Thus, the authors found strong evidence of a “sticky floor” compared to a “glass ceiling” effect in both periods, and this becomes more pronounced over time. In terms of the contributions of individual covariates on gender pay gap in Nigeria, the authors found that urban residence, unionisation, education and occupation variables exhibit major influence. However, the effects of covariates on the composition and wage structure components of the wage gap have changed over time.

The major policy implication of these findings is that to address the gender wage gap in Nigeria, policy should focus more on how labour is rewarded and improving human capital for women.

This study is a novel paper in Nigeria that has investigated the gender wage gap in Nigeria by extending the focus of literature in three ways. First, the authors applied an extension of Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition that relies on the RIF regressions to analyse the gender wage gap at all points along the wage distribution. Second, the authors used sample selection bias to account for the non-randomness of participation in wage employment. And third, the authors applied similar analysis to two waves of household surveys (in 2003/2004 and 2018/2019) in order to understand the dynamics or polarisation of the labour market in Nigeria in terms of the gender wage gap over time.

This paper explores how the disclosure quality, measured by the abnormal tone of environmental and social report, may determine the environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) performance of the firm. This study also investigates the impact of the moderator “board of directors” to explore the extent to which a well-balanced board of directors may affect this association within an impression management strategy.

This work uses a sample of 616 firm-year observations using a sample of French firms indexed on SBF120 index from 2010 to 2017. To test the developed hypotheses, the GLS regression is applied and to control for endogeneity issue and sample selection bias, the authors used, respectively, the two stage least square (2SLS) procedure and the Heckman model.

Findings suggest that a well-balanced board of directors moderates the relationship between the ESG performance and the disclosure quality. The positive effect of abnormal tone management on ESG is weakened by the presence of a good structure of the board, attenuating impression management initiatives.

The research provides evidence of the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting quality, in particular disclosure tone management, on the level of ESG performance in the French context. As the board of directors may have a major impact on weakening impression management strategies in particular tone management practices, in order to improve CSR report quality, the authors recommend French companies to ensure a well-balanced board of directors.

This study helps investors to comprehensively evaluate the information disclosed on CSR reports. It unveils that a strong board composition induces better quality of CSR report and brings better ESG performance. Thus, the study results point to the importance of a well-balanced board of directors and the regulation of the narrative disclosure of CSR information.

This study aims to investigate the effect of smoking on the income of workers in the Brazilian labor market.

Using data from the 2019 National Health Survey (PNS), we initially address the sample selection bias concerning labor market participation by using the Heckman (1979) method. Subsequently, the decomposition of income between smokers and nonsmokers is analyzed, both on average and across the earnings distribution by employing the procedure of Firpo, Fortin, and Lemieux (2009) - FFL decomposition. Ñopo (2008) technique is also used to obtain more robust estimates.

Overall, the findings indicate an income penalty for smokers in the Brazilian labor market across both the average and all quantiles of the income distribution. Notably, the most significant differentials and income penalties against smokers are observed in the lower quantiles of the distribution. Conversely, in the higher quantiles, there is a tendency toward a smaller magnitude of this gap, with limited evidence of an income penalty associated with this habit.

This study presents an important limitation, which refers to a restriction of the PNS (2019), which does not provide information about some subjective factors that also tend to influence the levels of labor income, such as the level of effort and specific ability of each worker, whether smokers or not, something that could also, in some way, be related to some latent individual predisposition that would influence the choice of smoking.

The relevance of the present study is clear in identifying the heterogeneity of the income gap in favor of nonsmokers, as in the lower quantiles there was a greater magnitude of differentials against smokers and a greater incidence of unexplained penalties in the income of these workers, while in the higher quantiles, there was low magnitude of the differentials and little evidence that there is a penalty in earnings since the worker is a smoker.

In the era of big data, there is doubt about the significance of causal inference as a paramount scientific task in the social sciences. Meanwhile, data-mining techniques rooted in big data and artificial intelligence (AI) have infiltrated numerous aspects of social science research. This study aims to expound the criticality of discerning causal relationships – beyond mere correlations – and scrutinizes the ramifications of big data and AI in the identification of causality.

This study discusses the challenges and opportunities for causality identification in the era of big data under the framework of potential outcomes model and structural causal model.

First, even in the age of big data, correlations that lack interpretability, robustness and feasibility cannot substitute causality. Second, the richness of the sample size does not help solve the problem of systematic bias in the process of causal inference. Furthermore, current AI research targets correlations rather than causality, thus creating difficulties in advancing from observations to counterfactuals.

This study provides insights into the impact of big data era on causal inference in the social sciences, with a view toward enhancing the pool of theoretical concepts available to researchers in relevant fields and accurately guiding the direction of scientific research in these fields.

This study aims to examine the effects of dialect connectedness between the chairman and the chief executive officer (CEO) (DCCC) on the tunneling activities of controlling shareholders.

This study uses abnormal related-party transactions (ARPT) as a proxy for tunneling activities and traces dialects of chairmen and CEOs based on the respective birthplace information. Baseline results are examined using a fixed-effects model. The results remain robust when using the instrumental variable approach, propensity score matching (PSM) technique, changing the measurement of tunneling and Heckman two-step selection model.

The results show that DCCC reduces tunneling activities. This negative association is more pronounced for non-state-owned enterprises and firms whose chairmen and CEOs work in the respective hometowns. DCCC restrains tunneling activities through mechanisms by establishing an informal supervisory effect on CEOs because the CEOs fear reputational damage and strengthening cooperation between chairmen and CEOs. Further analyses suggest that this negative association is more significant when chairmen and CEOs are non-controlling shareholders, but the association is weakened during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis.

As dialect is a carrier of culture, this study's results imply that cultural proximity can replace formal mechanisms to enhance corporate governance.

This paper aims to examine whether the cooperation between female chief financial officers (CFO) and the proportion of female directors would impact investment efficiency. The investigation is grounded in the increasing number of female top managers globally and the notion that female tends to cooperate more with other female than with male.

This study uses publicly listed firms in Bursa Malaysia from 2016 to 2020, which yielded a sample of 2,022 firm-year observations. The authors used multivariate ordinary least square regression to test the relationship, and to correct for the selection bias, the Heckman selection and PSM test were used.

The authors find a positive relationship between female CFOs and investment efficiency. A higher proportion of female directors accentuates this result. The findings support the homophily argument that similar characteristics (gender) promote cooperation. This shows that cooperation between female CFOs and directors improves investment efficiency. The results suggest that the improvement in investment efficiency could relate to higher managerial discretion for female CFOs and their ability to collaborate with female directors. These results are robust to a series of additional endogeneity tests. The findings have important implications for policymakers and firms to encourage more appointments of females in top management positions.

By highlighting the cooperation between female CFOs and female directors, this study contributes to the understanding that cooperation among females improves investment efficiency.

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.

This study aims to investigate whether gender diversity in audit committees affects the purchase of nonaudit services in China. Results from family and nonfamily firms are compared and the critical mass participation of females are further examined.

The sample comprises 1,834 Chinese listed companies from 2012 to 2021, among which 910 are family firms. The Heckman (1979) two-stage model is used to mitigate the potential endogeneity issue in the selection of gender diversity. Propensity score matching is also used to further alleviate the endogeneity problem in relation to family firms.

Results show a significant and negative correlation between the gender diversity in audit committees and nonaudit service fees. This association is more apparent in nonfamily than in family firms. Findings are consistent and robust to endogeneity tests and sensitivity analyses. The analysis of critical mass and symbolic participation shows that three female directors can more significantly restrain nonaudit fees than one to two females on the board.

This study contributes to literature on resource dependence theory, which posits that audit committees help enterprises establish contact with auditors, improve the company legitimacy, assist in communication and provide relevant expertise. This study also relates to agency theory, which holds that differences in the severity of types I and II agency problems between family and nonfamily firms lead to differences in auditor selection and related costs.

Extending from previous research on the relation between the gender diversity in audit committees and nonaudit fees, the present study delves into this connection within the context of China, an emerging economy. As a result, this investigation offers novel insights and expands upon current knowledge. In addition, the correlation between the gender diversity of audit committees and nonaudit fees is explored for family and nonfamily firms.