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This study investigates the effect of global and domestic uncertainty on the dynamics of portfolio investment in 21 economies (mostly advanced and larger emerging economies) from 2001–2016.

Specifically, the evolution of the net portfolio equity investment inflows (FPI net inflows) and the evolution of net portfolio investment (FPI net) are investigated in a context in which the degree and the volatility of domestic economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and world uncertainty index (WUI) varied. The authors provide an empirical analysis through the sequential (two-stage) estimation of linear panel data models for unbalanced panel data.

An increase in the degree and volatility of domestic EPU has a significant negative influence on FPI net inflows, while an increase in WUI has a significant positive one. Notably, a simultaneous increase in the domestic EPU and WUI enhances the net inflows of FPI, whereas a simultaneous increase in the volatility of these indicators reduces the net inflows of FPI. An increase in the degree and volatility of both domestic EPU and WUI have a significant positive effect on the net portfolio investment, implying that a significant net portfolio investment is going out of the country.

The results of this study encourage international investors to consider uncertainty indicators (and, more specifically, their variations) in their portfolio strategy to optimize their position on the international markets. The findings of this study invite policy-makers from large countries to reduce the perceived domestic uncertainty since this parameter can influence international investors' sensitivity and willingness to diversify their position out of the country.

The authors' approach focuses on the variations of uncertainty (existing literature mainly works with the indicators). While the results confirm the role played by large markets in international portfolio investment management, it nuances the changes in the portfolio management behaviors toward other markets when facing a changing uncertainty.

The consumption of rice that contains high levels of inorganic arsenic may cause human health risk. This study aims to determine As species concentrations, particularly iAs, in raw rice in Ho Chi Minh (HCM) City and its health risks.

A total of 60 polished raw composite samples of rice were purchased from traditional markets and supermarkets in HCM City. All samples were analyzed by HPLC-ICPMS for As species determination.

Mean concentrations of inorganic arsenic in all samples, which were purchased from supermarket and traditional market, were 88.8 µg/kg and 80.6 µg/kg, respectively. Overall, inorganic arsenic level was 84.7 µg/kg and contributed the highest proportion of arsenic species in rice with 67.7%. The proportion profiles for arsenic species were: As (III) (60 %); dimethylarsinic acid (32.2 %); As (V) (7.7 %) and methylarsonic acid (0.1 %). Inorganic arsenic level in raw rice was below the recommendation of World Health Organization. Using the benchmark dose recommended by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), all exposure doses were lower than BMDL05. However, as the doses ranged from 3.0 to 8.6 of Margin of Exposure (MOE), the health risk of iAs from rice consumption remains public health concern.

The study results report on the surveillance data of the presence of inorganic arsenic in raw rice products, which are available in the supermarkets and traditional markets, and its health risk to consumers in a metropolitan city in Vietnam.

“The world needs science, science needs women” is the message given by UNESCO in the program for the development of women in science” (UNESCO, 2017). In Vietnam, women’s participation and achievements in scientific research is considered a great and important resource for industrialization and modernization. Even so, are there gender differences in scientific achievement in the social science research institutes in Vietnam? What factors influence the scientific achievement of female social researchers? The answers will be based on data from a 2017 survey with a sample of 756 researchers, of which 77.6% were female. The survey was conducted by the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, a leading, ministry-level national center for the social sciences in Vietnam. This chapter analyzed the scientific achievements of researchers through their position as principal investigators of research projects and their publications, and factors that may impact this. Bivariate and multivariate analyses of factors that may affect the scientific achievement of researchers found that gender differences in academic achievement in the social sciences in Vietnam was still prevalent. Female researchers’ scientific achievements were lower than those of their male counterparts. The contribution to science of Vietnamese female researchers was limited by many different factors; the most important were the academic rank of the researchers and gender stereotype that considered housework the responsibility of women.

This paper examines the port of Mombasa’s attempted implementation of computer-based terminal operating systems (TOS); the challenges faced and the outcomes. In addition to enhancing its operations efficiency, a key motivation for the technology was to facilitate better integration and connectivity to the Belt and Road as a key gateway along the key route. It utilised a qualitative single-case methodology, involving a combination of semi-structured interviews, non-participant observations and content analysis of relevant policy documents and reports provided by the port. The paper finds that the attempt to adopt and implement TOS at the port mostly failed as a result of a complex combination of technological, organisational and environmental factors. Most importantly, the wider business environment was ill equipped with the necessary information communication technology (ICT) infrastructure to support effective implementation. There was also a general lack of appropriately skilled workers to support and drive the same.

This article aims to draw a conceptual model that integrates the view from the entrepreneurial event model with entrepreneurial education and prior self-employment experience. The model tests the role of entrepreneurial education on the formation of intentions to become an entrepreneur and examines whether prior self-employed experiences moderate the route from entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial perceived feasibility (PF) and perceived desirability (PD) into the entrepreneurial intention (EI).

The authors operated on a sample of 389 master's students by applying Cronbach's alpha, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling to illustrate the links between constructs.

The study found that entrepreneurial education is positively correlated with PF, PD, and intention to enter entrepreneurial activities. PD is determined as a partial mediator in the entrepreneurial education–intention link and full mediator in PF and EI. Moreover, the study revealed that prior self-employed experiences serve as a positive moderator in the path from entrepreneurial education and PD to EI.

The study offers several recommendations based on research findings so as to nurture and promote entrepreneurial activities among master's students.

The current research provides novel insights about the relationship between entrepreneurial education and intentions to become an entrepreneur over and about the central antecedents in the entrepreneurial event model and moderation effects of prior self-employed experiences.

This study aims to investigate whether the participation in land rental markets helps to mitigate impacts by climate change on multidimensional poverty in Thailand and Vietnam.

The authors use precipitation data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and self-reported shocks from the Thailand Vietnam Socio-Economic Panel (TVSEP) project to estimate climate change. Data from the TVSEP are also used to calculate a multidimensional poverty index (MPI). Fixed-effect logit panel regressions with interaction terms are implemented to analyze the above mentioned.

The results show that land rental markets are used as mitigation strategies to climate change in Thailand and Vietnam. The participation in land rental markets also reduces multidimensional poverty. However, as a mitigation strategy, land rental markets are only successful in certain circumstances.

The results show that there is potential in using land rental markets as mitigation strategies to climate change. Further research is needed to better understand which adaptation strategies, besides land rental market participation, and which combinations of different adaptation strategies are successful to mitigate negative effects induced by climate change.

The results show that there is potential in using land rental markets as mitigation strategies to climate change. Therefore, education in the participation in land rental markets and how to use them as a mitigation strategy can be a way to increase households' resilience to negative effects induced by climate change. Households make better decisions regarding their land when they are better informed on the functionality of land rental markets. Additionally, being better informed increases self-confidence to participate in land-rental markets.

Land rental markets as a mitigation strategy to climate change rarely have been studied, and if so, mainly the effect of leasing land has been studied. Additionally, the authors implement new measures of poverty – a multidimensional view on poverty which provides new insights into who are the poor and how they can be lift out of poverty.

This study aims to evaluate the impact of climate change on some specific areas of agricultural production in Quang Nam Province, including assessing the possibility of losing agricultural land owing to sea level rise; assessing the impact on rice productivity; and, assessing the impact on crop water demand.

This study used the method of collecting and processing statistics data; method of analysis, comparison and evaluation; method of geographic information system; method of using mathematical model; and method of professional solution, to assess the impacts of climate change.

Evaluation results in Quang Nam Province show that, by the end of the 21st century, winter–spring rice productivity may decrease by 33%, while summer–autumn rice productivity may decrease by 49%. Under representative concentration pathway (RCP) 4.5 scenario, water demand increases by 31.1% compared to the baseline period, of which the winter–spring crop increases by 28.4%, and the summer–autumn crop increased by 34.3%. Under RCP 8.5 scenario, water demand increases by 54.1% compared to the baseline period, of which the winter–spring crop increases by 46.7%, and the summer–autumn crop increased by 63.1%. The area of agricultural land likely to be inundated by sea level rise at 50 cm is 418.32 ha, and at 80 cm, it is 637.07 ha.

To propose adaptation solution to avoid the impacts of climate change on agriculture, it is necessary to consider about the impact on losing land for agriculture, the impact on rice productivity, assess the impact on crop water demand and other. The result of this assessment is useful for policymakers for forming the agriculture development plan.

The authors investigate how foreign investment in securities market informs about the future firm performance in emerging markets.

The authors define the independent variable, abnormal foreign investment (AFI) as the residuals of the foreign ownership equation. The authors regress foreign ownership on its first lag and factors and define the residuals as the AFI. The AFI is the over- or under-investment reflecting foreign conscious (clear-purpose) investment, thus better indicating how foreign investment affects firm performance. The dependent variable is Tobin’s q (Q), which represents the firm performance. Then, the authors regress the Tobin’s q next quarters (Qt + k) on the AFI current quarter (AFIt). The authors use a two-step generalized method of moments (GMM) and check endogeneity with the D-GMM model for the regression.

The results show that the current AFI is positively correlated with the firm performance in each of the next four quarters (the following one year). This positive relationship is pronounced for large firms, firms with no large foreign investors, liquid firms and firms listed in the active market. The results suggest that foreign investment might choose well-productive firms already. Also, the current AFI is significantly positively correlated with stock returns in each of the next three quarters. These results suggest that the AFI is informative up to one-year period.

The results suggest that foreign investors (most of them are small) in the Vietnamese market might choose well-productive firms already. However, if the large investors have long-term investment in tangible, intangible, human capital and so on, and lead to a significant increase in firms’ performance is still the limitation of this paper.

The results of this paper may guide investors whose portfolios are composed of stocks with foreign investment.

This paper adds to the literature to enrich the conclusion of a positive relationship between foreign ownership and firm performance.

This paper aims to offer an empirical study of the impact of institutional quality on the banking system risk and credit risk.

Applying cross-sectional dependent tests and stationary tests to check the property of our sample, the panel corrected standard errors model is recruited as the main estimator, while feasible generalized least squares, pool ordinary least squares (OLS), robust pool OLS and other estimators are used as a robustness check for an unbalanced panel data for 56 economies divided into three subsamples between 2002 and 2015.

The empirical results show several significant contributions. First, an improvement in institutional quality is an important factor to reduce the banking system risk. This effect of the institutions is less important in well-capitalized, highly profitable and in high-economic growth countries. This effect is also stronger in highly liquid banking systems. Notably, a better institutional quality helps to reduce the banking system risk in the highly concentrated banking system. Second, institutional quality has a significant negative relationship with the banking credit risk, especially in highly concentrated banking systems and in high-growth countries. This influence is weaker in highly liquid and well-capitalized banking systems. Finally, better institutions reduce the positive effect of trade openness, but it induces a higher credit risk for the banking system from the trade openness. Notably, a better institutional quality enhances the negative effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow on both banking system risk and credit risk. These findings are documented for a global sample and three subsamples: low and lower-middle-income economies, upper-middle-income economies and high-income economies.

This study provides some recommendations, for policymakers, on the roles of institutions in the banking system and financial stability.

The authors examine the association between infrastructure and a household's resilience capacity against shocks and the impacts of a household's resilience capacity on household consumption and poverty.

The authors use panel data (collected in 2010, 2013 and 2016) from 1,698 households in Thailand and 1,701 households in Vietnam and employ an instrumental variable approach.

The authors find that transportation and information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure help improve households' absorptive capacity in coping with shocks. Furthermore, this capacity can prevent households from reducing consumption and falling into poverty.

Rural development policies should attend to transportation and ICT infrastructure.

The authors establish empirical evidence on the association between infrastructure and a household's resilience capacity and the impact of resilience capacity on poverty.