Asymmetric impact of oil prices,exchange rate,and inflation on tourism demand in Pakistan: new evidence from nonlinear ARDL

This study scrutinized the asymmetric impact of oil prices, exchange rate, and inflation on tourism demand in Pakistan using [Shin, Y., Yu, B., & Greenwood-Nimmo, M. (2014) Modelling asymmetric cointegration and dynamic multipliers in a nonlinear ARDL framework. In Festschrift in honor of peter schmidt (pp. 281–314). New York, NY: Springer] nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model. The NARDL bounds test examined the existence of cointegration in study variables, including CO₂ emissions, institutional quality, oil prices, exchange rate, inflation, and tourism demand. The evidence proposes that disregarding the intrinsic nonlinearities may misinform inference. The estimated NARDL model affirmed long-run negative and significant effect of CO₂ emissions on tourism demand, while institutional quality was positively associated with tourism demand. Furthermore, the findings of the study also suggested long-run asymmetric relationship between oil prices, exchange rate, inflation, and tourism demand.     

Can entrepreneurial orientation improve sustainable development through leveraging internal lean practices?

This study aims to examine the mediating role of internal lean practices (ILPs) on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and triple bottom line performance (i.e. environmental, social, and operational performance). We examine Chile, which represents a vibrant economy and one of the world's most productive entrepreneurship ecosystems but with a history of socio‐economic inequalities and strong profit‐driven pressures to overextract natural resources. The study is based on a questionnaire related to manufacturing sent to 112 companies in Chile. The proposed relationships are analysed through structural equation modelling. The results indicate that ILPs fully mediate the effect of entrepreneurial orientation on environmental performance and social performance and partially mediates the effect of entrepreneurial orientation on operational performance. Our study extends the literature by explaining that entrepreneurial orientation builds and strengthens ILPs for creating triple bottom line competitive advantage.     

Is ‘oil and gas’ industry of ASEAN5 countries integrated with the US counterpart?

ABSTRACT

This paper employs the VARMA-MGARCH-ABEKK model and Granger causality on 15 years’ daily time series data to examine investment opportunities in the oil and gas industries for ASEAN5 countries relative to the US counterpart. It shows that the latter leads the former in decomposing integration into cross-country effects on returns and conditional return volatilities. The empirical results show that investors can gain an international intra-industry diversification benefit in Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam by holding US oil and gas assets in their portfolios whereas Asian oil and gas assets may result in negative shocks due to the increase in return volatilities for Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam. However, Thailand are insensitive to the cross-country intra-industry diversification. While making trading decisions, investors should be aware of the impulse responses of ASEAN oil and gas markets from the shocks in the US and the Asian markets and their asymmetric spill over effects.     

Economic viability of foreign investment in railways: a case study of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)

Abstract

Pakistan Railways has faced a severe financial crisis in recent years. Pakistan has recently become a partner with China in a mega-investment project under an agreement called the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Among other things, CPEC also includes a range of investments in Pakistan Railways. This particular study focuses on the analysis of US$8.2 billion investment in the upgrade and expansion of the Karachi-Peshawar railways link, which is also known as the ML-1 (Main Line 1). The study found ML-1 as economically viable with a payback period of 10?years. Furthermore, ML-1 project investment is expected to result in uplifting Pakistan Railways, mainly through an increase in freight and passenger transportation. Some risk factors may hinder the expected economic return from the CPEC investment in Pakistan Railways. These factors include consistency in the government policies, the status of the Pakistani economy in upcoming years, and law and order situations in the country. The study has a utility for the governments of both countries and larger business communities have stakes in the trade between the two countries. It is equally beneficial for the international community, businesses (both in China and Pakistan) and locals of the region associated with the CPEC infrastructure.     

Foreign exchange market pressure and stock market dynamics in emerging Asia

International Economics and Economic Policy - This study investigates connections between currency and stock markets for the Asian emerging economies using a novel approach that considers exchange...     

“A healthy outside starts from the inside”: A matter of sustainable consumption behavior in Italy and Pakistan

The aim of this research is to determine people's motives when purchasing organic food and how these motives are moderated by price sensitivity and ethical concerns in a cross-cultural setting. A highly structured questionnaire was used to collect the data from 673 Italian and 594 Pakistani consumers, using the convenience sampling technique. Based on the etic research approach, the measurement invariance tests were performed, and data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results indicate that environmental concerns and health-consciousness are significant predictors of subjective norms and purchase attitudes among Italian consumers. Food safety concern proved the strongest predictor of purchase attitude and perceived behavioral control among Pakistani consumers. The results also confirm the moderating role of ethical concerns and price sensitivity in buying organic food in both cultures. In terms of originality, this study fills significant gaps in the literature, particularly regarding the roles of attitude, behavioral control, and subjective norms in consumer buying motives and purchasing intentions in cross-cultural studies but more importantly, the results validate that consumer concerns across the globe are related to the Sustainability Development Goals and the U.N. 2030 agenda, which aptly provides a blue print for the development and developmental goals and concerns across nations.     

The impact of tourism on deficit in balance of payments of Pakistan: an application of bounds testing approach to cointegration

The current study is intended to analyze the long-run relationship between deficit in balance of payments (BOPs) and tourism for the period of 1976–2015 using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model. The findings of the paper exposed an indirect relationship between tourism and BOP deficit in the context of Pakistan economy, while deficit balance of trade, real effective exchange rate, and deficit in fiscal balance have a positive and significant association with the deficit in the BOPs in the long run. Based on the findings, it is recommended that policies should be devised that promote the tourism industry of Pakistan as it would be helpful in reducing the deficit in the BOPs.     

Environmental,social and governance disclosure and default risk

We investigate whether environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure is related to default risk. Using a sample of US nonfinancial institutions from 2006 to 2017, we find that ESG disclosure is positively related to Merton's distance to default and is negatively related to the credit default swap spread, which suggests that firms with a higher ESG disclosure have lower default risk. Our analysis further indicates that the inverse effect of ESG disclosure on default risk is through increased profitability and reduced performance variability and cost of debt. We also document that the negative impact of ESG disclosure on default risk is existent only for mature and older firms. These results are important for all stakeholders of firms, including shareholders and bondholders to consider firm's ESG disclosure in conjunction with life cycle stage before making their investment decisions.     

Determinants of industrial development: a panel analysis of South Asian economies

Quality & Quantity - A well performing industrial sector plays an important role in poverty mitigation, unemployment reduction, trade promotion, exchange of goods and services, increased per...     

Social compliance audits and multinational corporation supply chain: evidence from a study of the rituals of social audits

This study investigates the use of social compliance audits in the supply chain of multinational corporations (MNCs). Particularly, we explore the use of such audits in assessing and managing the working conditions of factory workers in the garment industry in a developing nation. Through a range of interviews with MNCs’ internal auditors, with commissioned external auditors and with representatives of the suppliers in Bangladesh, this study finds that social compliance audits become ritual strategies and are not a primary means of advancing workers’ rights. Drawing on the concept of surrogate accountability, the study suggests that to create real change in workers’ conditions and in order to hold MNCs and their suppliers accountable, some form of surrogate (government, non-governmental organisations or media) intervention is necessary. This is, we argue, preferable to leaving it in the hands of ‘markets’ and simply waiting for another major incident such as Rana Plaza to stir public concern. This study contributes to the literature by investigating how social compliance audits are undertaken by MNCs sourcing products from a developing nation, what motivations drive the adoption of such audits, and what, if anything, are the likely outcomes from the process.