Motivation for bilateral aid allocation: Altruism or trade benefits

This paper argues that OECD countries allocate more aid to recipient nations who import goods in which donor nations have a comparative advantage in production. The estimates indicate that a substantially larger amount of aid is provided to recipients who import capital goods, while imports by other category groups have no significant effects. Given that developed donor nations are major producers and exporters of capital goods, this result at least partially supports their trade benefits motive. Donors also appear to be more concerned about alleviating physical miseries (infant mortality) and rewarding good human rights conditions, but less towards reducing economic hardships (poverty). Moreover, the usual political and strategic considerations of donors continue to be the major determinants of aid allocation even in the Post Cold War era.     

Moving beyond the mechanistic structures: The role of inclusive leadership in developing change‐oriented organizational citizenship behaviour

In this study, we explore the relationship between inclusive leadership and change‐oriented organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) with the mediating roles of behavioural integrity and trust in leadership. Data were collected from 151 supervisor–subordinate dyads from small and medium enterprises in Pakistan. The results revealed that inclusive leadership is positively related to change‐oriented OCB. Our study reaffirms the indirect effect of the inclusive leadership on change‐oriented OCB via behavioural integrity and trust in leadership. Finally, the results supported the chain of causality: sequential mediation of behavioural integrity, and trust in leadership between inclusive leadership and change‐oriented OCB. Causal attribution theory is used to support the findings. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Impact of abusive supervision on deviant work behavior: The role of Islamic work ethic

In this article, we examined the relationship between abusive supervision and deviant workplace behavior and the moderating role of an Islamic Work Ethic. Three hundred and thirty‐six employees in different organizations (specializing in software development, medicine, law enforcement, telecommunication, pharmaceutics, and banking) across Pakistan completed our questionnaire. The results revealed that abusive supervision was positively related to deviant workplace behavior. Moreover, the moderation of an Islamic Work Ethic on the relationship between abusive supervision and deviant work behavior was confirmed. The study contributed in many ways. It expanded literature by revealing a weaker relationship between abusive supervision and deviant behavior when Islamic Work Ethic (IWE) was high. It also tested the conservation of resources theory by providing a plausible reasoning of the role of IWE in employee motivation. By integrating IWE as a resource in the workplace, practitioners would learn that the proper use of resources would produce satisfied workers who would not indulge in deviant workplace behaviors.     

A comparison between North and South business ethics: the concepts of Renzhi and Fazhi in China

The purpose of this study is to compare the ethical standards of business practitioners of Northern provinces of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) who follow the ‘rule by man’ (i.e. the Renzhi system) versus those of southern provinces who follow the ‘rule by law’ (i.e. the Fazhi system). Our Shanghai survey represented the south Chinese sample, and our Shijiazhuang mailing represented our north Chinese sample. We received 95 completed responses for the former and 102 completed responses for the latter. Our results found that the south Chinese practitioners were more likely to be idealistic, possessed virtue epistemic traits and were more sensitive to ethical practices than north Chinese practitioners were.     

Estimating the economic cost of the COVID-19 pandemic

Business Economics - Our study presents a framework to estimate economic costs of the COVID-19 pandemic for the U.S. economy. We characterize whether the pandemic-related damages are short-lived or...     

Are yield-curve/monetary cycles’ approaches enough to predict recessions?

Business Economics - This paper proposes a new framework that identifies a threshold between the fed funds rate and the 10-year Treasury yield and, when the threshold is breached, the risk of a...     

Market Risk,Interest Rate Risk,and Interdependencies in Insurer Stock Returns: A System‐GARCH Model

We examine market risk, interest rate risk, and interdependencies in returns and return volatilities across three insurer segments within a System‐GARCH framework. Three main results are obtained: market risk is greatest for accident and health (A&H) insurers, followed by life (Life) and property and casualty (P&C) insurers; interest rate sensitivity is negative and greatest for Life insurers; and interdependencies in returns are significant with the magnitude being strongest between P&C and A&H insurers. The implication is that greatest diversification benefits arise between Life and the other segments of the insurance industry. Market risk and interest rate risk for diversified firms are smaller than those for nondiversified firms for both product and geographic diversification.     

Impact of ethical leadership on creativity: the role of psychological empowerment

This study examines the relationship between ethical leadership and employee creativity with mediating role of psychological empowerment. Data were collected from 183 supervisor–subordinate dyads in different hotels across Pakistan. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the distinctiveness of variables used in our study. The results also confirmed that ethical leadership promotes creativity at workplace, while psychological empowerment mediates the effect of ethical leadership on creativity. The cognitive evaluation theory was used to support findings. Implications are also discussed.     

An Ordered Probit Approach to Predicting the Probability of Inflation/Deflation

This paper provides an ordered probit approach that estimates the probability six months in the future of three distinct scenarios for prices: inflation, deflation, or price stability. The traditional way of forecasting inflation is to predict a single level and/or growth rate of the PCE deflator. However, this approach is not useful for identifying options or risks facing decision-makers, especially in financial markets. Also, point estimates of inflation convey a sense of overconfidence. Our approach is more practical for decision-makers who must hedge their portfolios, but it is also useful for policymakers, investors, and consumers who must attach a probability with each possible scenario of future price trends. Our results indicate that since June 2011 the probability of deflation has been persistently higher than of the other two scenarios. Thus, the recent years’ higher deflation probabilities may offer a justification for the persistence of the Federal Reserve’s highly accommodative monetary policy during 2012–14.