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Many scholars and practitioners lament female pay gaps and the ethical issues they pose; yet several studies provide supporting evidence showing that the female CEOs earn more than men. However, other studies find an insignificant difference between male and female CEO pay. 10; The purpose of this study is to re-investigate this question to uncover the root of the divergent findings and thereby clarify our understanding of this important issue of CEOs’ gender pay gaps.

Evidence suggests the CEO position is at times a rare instance where typical pay gaps for female workers reverse such that these executives earn pay premiums. Recently, Gupta et al. (2018) called findings for female CEO pay premiums into question, failing to find differences despite using data similar to prior studies. The authors investigated the discrepant findings, identifying and showing that the use of an analytical approach to account for unobserved differences (i.e. fixed effects) are inappropriate for the data structure drives’ divergent findings. The authors also find that results are affected by the industries and time-frames used in the analyses.

The authors find that female CEOs outearn their male counterparts. However, the authors also show that the significance of results is affected by the industries and time-frames used in the analyses.

It is an original work that reexamines a somewhat controversial issue on the gender differences in CEO pay.

There are conflicting views of the primary role of income inequality in economic development. Many expect that higher income shares at the top reflect substantial economic contributions while others think that these increases in top shares have not translated into higher economic growth. Recently, this debate has been reinvigorated by a new proposal: higher income inequality could hurt economic performance by decreasing future intergenerational mobility. We contribute to this debate by examining the relationship between intergenerational perceived job status mobility and past income inequality. We find a robust negative association of lagged income inequality with upward intergenerational job status mobility and a robust positive association of lagged income inequality with downward intergenerational job status mobility. In addition, we find that the quality of political institutions and religious fractionalization both contribute positively to job status mobility. Higher levels of past Gross Domestic Product (GDP) result in less upward job status mobility and more downward job status mobility.

The upsurge of Chinese and Indian outward foreign direct investment (FDI) raises an unanswered question about locational determinants of direct investment from the two countries. Using an unbalanced bilateral FDI database, we find that Chinese and Indian FDI are attracted to countries with large market size, low GDP growth, high volumes of imports from China or India, and low corporate tax rates. We also find important differences between China and India. While Chinese FDI is drawn to countries with open economic regimes, depreciated host currencies, better institutional environments, and English speaking status, none of these factors are important for Indian FDI. Chinese FDI is also deterred by geographic distance and OCED membership. However, neither of these has any impact on Indian FDI.

For more than 25 years auditing research has examined whether knowledge spillovers or synergies exist from the joint provision of audit and non‐audit services as well as whether the audit client benefits from knowledge spillovers. However, empirical evidence on knowledge spillover remains mixed and elusive. This article seeks to contribute to this debate, using a large sample covering both the pre‐ and the post‐Sarbanes‐Oxley Act (SOX) era. A post‐SOX focus can be potentially informative because SOX has fundamentally changed the mix of audit and non‐audit services that can be offered to audit clients.

A two‐stage least squares regression model is used to control for simultaneous bias due to the joint determination of audit and non‐audit fees. A panel dataset is also used.

A strong and significant negative relationship is found between audit fees and non‐audit fees. The results suggest that knowledge spillover flows from non‐audit to the audit side, as well as from the audit side to the non‐audit side. For the overall sample, a 1 percent increase in non‐audit fees is associated with a 0.59 percent decrease in audit fees. Similarly, a 1 percent increase in audit fees is associated with a 0.49 percent decrease in non‐audit fees.

Though a comprehensive set of determinants of audit and non‐audit fees is used, it is possible that the model may not include some other unknown determinants of fees paid to auditors.

The study contributes to the debate on whether regulators should ban all non‐audit services. It is found that when the same audit firm performs both audit and non‐audit services, there are synergies, i.e. insight learned from performing one function helps the other.

At the economy level, the findings suggest that cost savings, due to knowledge spillover, are partly passed on to the clients, particularly by Big 4 auditors.

The findings on the existence of knowledge spillover in the post‐SOX era are potentially informative to regulators, auditors, audit clients, and audit committee members.

The paper aims to identify the differences between developed and developing country firms with respect to firm-specific and country-level determinants of their capital structure. For this purpose, all constituent firms in one of the oldest Islamic equity indices, Dow Jones Islamic Market World Index (DJIM), are considered and the Muslim-majority status of each firm's domicile country is recognized.

The study employs Hausman–Taylor random effects regression with endogenous covariates to explain the debt ratios of firms in DJIM by separating them into developed and developing country subsamples in an unbalanced panel data setting. Developing country subsample is further split into two based on the Muslim-majority status of each firm's domicile country.

Consistent with the previous literature, this study finds that firm-specific characteristics are the main determinants of their capital structure. Additionally, the paper shows that country-level characteristics have an impact on the debt ratio, however, the types of factors vary across developed and developing countries. Debt ratios in developing country firms are lower than those in developed country firms, largely due to the significantly smaller leverage ratios of firms in Muslim-majority countries. Although the debt ratios of DJIM firms are higher in “non-Muslim” countries, the set of firm-level capital structure determinants are not statistically explained by operating in a “Muslim” country. The study also documents that, before the global financial crisis of 2008, companies in developing countries have gradually become less leveraged worldwide.

This paper provides a new perspective into the differences between developed and developing country firms' capital structures by focusing on a relatively homogeneous data set restricted by leverage screening rules of an Islamic equity index and recognizing the Muslim-majority status of each firm's domicile country.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the extent to which financial and market performance of companies in the oil and gas sector can be attributed to the value of their intangibles.

The research utilized publicly available data on global oil and gas companies from 2000 to 2015. Panel data analysis was used to assess the relationship between intangibles (measured by Calculated Intangible Value (CIV)) and financial and market performance of these companies.

Results show that intangibles had a significant impact on firm performance in multiple financial measures. Firms’ intangibles also influence their market capitalization, indicating that the financial markets discount such information in their pricing.

Although the impact of intangibles on corporate performance is found to be significant, the size of that impact is small, suggesting that significant increase in the size of intangibles would only lead to a modest increase in corporate performance. Additionally, the research sample was limited to the top oil and gas firms listed in the Fortune 2000 global list and limits the generalization of the findings. Despite these limitations, the research provides greater confidence in using CIV to assess intangibles in organizations.

This research highlights the importance and ways of measurement of intangibles for managers in oil and gas companies and its significance for their firms’ performance.

The paper fills the gap in the literature in the assessment of intangibles in the oil and gas sector, as well as in the assessment of using CIV to measure the impact of intangibles on company performance.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of a focus loan strategy on Islamic banks’ (IB) performance in three areas: sectoral, geographic and the type of Islamic instrument. This paper specifically addresses two questions. First, should IBs focus or diversify their loan portfolios? Second, how does focus in lending affect IBs’ returns and risk?

The panel generalized linear squared method was used for regressions throughout the paper. Data used in the analysis were extracted from IBs’ publicly available regulatory reports in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. The sample is an unbalanced panel that includes financial data on 26 banks during the period 2010–2018.

Focusing on Islamic instruments and economic sectors would harm IBs’ profitability while reducing their risks. Geographic focus increased the profitability of IBs, but it also increased their default risk. The focus in Islamic instruments was beneficial when risk is low to moderate, but when the risk of an IB increased, it was better to diversify across Islamic instruments. Focus in geographical areas, on the other hand, had a non-linear U-shaped relationship with return, which means that when IBs’ risk is high, focusing their loans in one geographic area enhances their returns.

This paper fills the existing gap in Islamic banking literature regarding the focus/diversification dilemma. It is the first attempt to study the effect of focus in three areas (sectoral, geographic and instrument used) on the return and risk of IBs.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of bank-specific, industry-specific and macroeconomic determinants of bank profitability amongst domestic UK commercial banks.

This study used an empirically driven single equation framework that incorporates the traditional structure–conduct–performance (SCP) hypothesis. A generalised method of moments technique was applied to a panel of UK banks covering the period 1998–2018 to account for profit persistence.

The estimation results show that all bank-specific determinants, with the exception of credit risk, significantly affect bank profitability in the anticipated way. However, no evidence was found in support of the SCP hypothesis. Interest rates, especially longer-term interest rates, and the rate of inflation has a significant effect on bank profitability, with the business cycle having a symmetric insignificant effect once other variables have been accounted for. Profitability persists to a moderate extent within the UK banking market, indicating that there exists a departure from a perfectly competitive market structure.

The literature that examines the actual underlying determinants of UK domestic bank profitability is limited.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of adopting certified food production on chemical fertilizer and pesticide use in China.

The authors estimate fixed effect models to track the changes in agrochemical consumption at household level over time and evaluate the effect of certified food production, using an unbalanced panel data set covering 4,830 households in six provinces over the period 2005–2013.

On average, the authors do not find significant effects of certified food production on either chemical fertilizer or pesticide consumption among Chinese farmers. The effects are heterogeneous across villages, but the heterogeneous effects show no clear pattern that is consistent with different types of certification. The findings are robust to the use of alternative panel structure and certification indicators. The lack of knowledge about certification among farmers, the price premium and differences in regulation enforcement across regions may explain why the authors do not find negative effects on agrochemical use.

This study suggests that careful inspections and strong enforcement of certified food production is needed to ensure that the environmental goals of certified food production can be achieved and the reputation of certification in China can be improved. The inspection of certification producers and the enforcement of current regulations should be stricter for the further healthy development of certified food production in China.

This study is the first attempt to systematically evaluate the impact of food certification on the use of agrochemicals in Chinese agriculture.