The human capital and economic growth nexus: in East and South Asia

This study adopts a disaggregated regional focus to test for the human capital (HC)-growth nexus in selected nine Asian countries. It utilizes the Empirical Bayesian methodology which addresses not only the heterogeneity issue but it also utilizes the common structural priors of regional countries to yield ‘informationally’ efficient estimates of the impact of HC on the stock and levels of GDP. Various measures of HC are utilized to determine which of these produces a better explanation of economic growth in the two Asian regions. The study finds that primary and secondary education was more prominent in explaining the fluctuations of economic growth in East Asia, whereas tertiary and vocational education showed positive effects on economic growth in South Asia. Government expenditures on education were also found to positively affect economic growth in both regions. The results shed new evidence to establish that the differences in growth rates within East and South Asia are associated with differences in educational progression in the regions.     

Industry 4.0 and circular economy practices: A new era business strategies for environmental sustainability

Amid rising environmental concerns, Industry 4.0 and blockchain technology (BCT) are transforming circular economy (CE) practices and prevailing business models. Recognize the same; this study examines the role of blockchain technology in circular CE practices and their impact on eco-environmental performance, which influences organizational performance. The study collects data from 404 enterprises located in Chinese and Pakistani territories, involved in cross-border supply chain operations. Both countries' sample has great relevance due to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which possesses several positive fallouts in terms of technology spillovers across firms. Using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) modeling framework, this study provides three key findings. First, BCT significantly improves the circular economy practices (circular procurement, circular design, recycling, and remanufacturing). Second, CE practices help improve firms' environmental performance and stimulate their financial performance. Third, higher eco-environmental performance significantly boosts organizational performance. This study sets out the foundations for participating countries/firms that simultaneously achieve financial and sustainable goals by integrating blockchain technology in circular economy practices.     

Asymmetric Nonlinear Impact of Oil Prices and Inflation on Residential Property Prices: a Case of US,UK and Canada

The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics - This paper examines the nonlinear impact of oil prices and inflation on residential prices in the US, the UK and Canada using quarterly data from...     

Integrating Behavioural and Branding Perspectives to Maximize Green Brand Equity: A Holistic Approach

The aim of this study is to expand the existing understanding of green consumers' behaviour by proposing and testing an integrated conceptual model that explores the influence of consumers' personal concerns for the environment and general attitudes towards green products on brand‐related knowledge structures (image and associations) and relationship preferences (trust and brand equity) for green brands. A questionnaire‐based survey method was used to collect data using convenience sampling. One hundred and ninety‐nine usable responses were obtained. A structural equation modelling procedure was used to test the proposed hypotheses. The results confirmed that a positive relationship exists between consumer concern for environmental values and general attitudes towards green products. Both these constructs influence consumers' knowledge structure of a green brand (image and associations). Furthermore, a strong relationship exists between consumers' knowledge structure (image and associations) and their relational preference (trust and brand equity) with green brands. These findings are important for business strategy formulation by providing empirical support for the idea that a firm should invest its resources not only to project its environmentally friendly brands but also to build consumers' concern for environmental values and their attitude towards green products. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Optimism and pessimism: A cross-country comparison

Optimism and pessimism influence economic choices. If consumers are optimistic, they tend to spend a greater proportion of their budget shares on luxuries and a lesser proportion on necessities. Many models of consumer expenditure do not take into account the influence of optimism and pessimism. This paper demonstrates a way to indirectly measure optimism and pessimism by focusing on patterns in Engel curve residuals for necessities and luxuries. Using the revised International Comparison Program (ICP) 2005 data covering 144 countries, this paper presents economy-wide optimism and pessimism indicators. These indicators provide a useful complement to traditional economic measures of standard of living such as real gross domestic product (GDP) in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms. These indicators are non-economic in traditional terms. However, since they are constructed as residuals from an economic analysis, they could act as a very useful complement to traditional economic indicators and, as such, may be termed “quality of life” indicators.     

The dominant borrower syndrome

The financing channel of a fiscal stimulus matters for the size and the sign of the fiscal multiplier. We develop a general equilibrium model where a fiscal stimulus is partially bank-funded and the government becomes the dominant borrower from banks relative to entrepreneurs. This leads to a negative impact on credit spreads, investment and a contraction in output. We support our story with a structural vector autoregression for a sample of developing countries featuring the dominant borrower syndrome.     

What determines public education expenditures in Russia?1

Recent studies suggest that the allocation of expenditures in education is important for growth. The state of public education spending in many transition economies highlights the need for an assessment of the nature of education expenditures in these countries. This paper attempts to fill this gap in the literature by estimating the determinants of education expenditures in the Russian Federation. Results from panel data analysis show that revenue and the student‐population ratio have a positive impact on education expenditures while the effect of population density is negative. Three regional variables also show significant impact. The income and price elasticity of public education expenditures are estimated to be 0.57 and ?0.18, respectively, a result comparable to studies from other countries. The results presented here provide insight into how fiscal institutions and the structure of the political process in Russia may affect the degree of resource allocation in the educational sector during the transition process.     

Columbia Law School Roundtable on Public Aspects of Private Equity

The mandate of the broader private equity “ecosystem” goes well beyond earning competitive returns for the limited partners and their beneficiaries. After noting that PE investing is encountering ever larger “headline” and social risks, the panelists were in complete agreement that LPs should exert greater pressure on PE sponsors to take account of and try to address negative externalities when buying and operating their portfolio companies. Bain Capital's Double Impact Fund, for example, while always looking for ways of increasing profits and reducing risk, sets out to have a positive influence on its non‐investor stakeholders, including employees. To that end, Bain develops and tracks company‐specific metrics linked to positive outcomes, and then links those metrics to management compensation. And the director of ESG programs at the International Limited Partners Association points to ILPA's programs for diversity and inclusion as a promising model.     

RETRACTED: Distributional effects of rising food prices in Pakistan: Evidence from HIES 2001–02 and 2005–06 survey

This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/withdrawalpolicy).This article has been retracted at the request of the Editor and the Publisher.After a thorough investigation, the Publisher has concluded that the Editor was misled into accepting this article based upon the positive advice of at least one faked reviewer report. The report was submitted from a fictitious email account which was provided to the Editor by the corresponding author during the submission of the article. The corresponding author, Dr Zaman, wishes to admit sole responsibility and to state that his co-authors were not aware of his actions.This manipulation of the peer-review process represents a clear violation of the fundamentals of peer review, our publishing policies, and publishing ethics standards. Apologies are offered to the reviewers whose identities were assumed and to the readers of the journal that this deception was not detected during the submission process.