Human capital,investment and growth: Some results from an endogenous growth model

Recent theoretical literature on the sources of economic growth has emphasized the role of human capital as an internal contributing force in the growth process. Empirical results reported in this paper provide support for this theoretical proposition. Cross-country data from 32 developing countries indicate that human capital (as alternatively measured by the primary school enrollment rate or the adult literacy rate) exerts a significant positive impact upon output growth.     

Factors affecting consumers’ intention towards purchasing halal food in South Africa: a structural equation modelling

This research study highlighted the factors that influence the intention of consumers to buy halal food products. In this study, the researchers have chosen to address the gap in the literature pertaining to non-South African consumers’ purchase intention. Non-South Africans are foreign people who reside in South Africa including immigrants, workers, and students. Through utilising the theory of planned behaviour, this study aims to determine the attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behaviour control, and awareness of non-South African towards purchasing halal food products. This also attempts to identify the strongest factor that influences the purchasing intention of halal food by non-South African consumers. The sample of the study consisted of 230 non-South African consumers in Cape Town. Data were collected through self-administered questionnaires. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to identify the structural relationships among the constructs identified and to test the study hypotheses. The findings of this study indicate that there is a significant relationship between awareness and buying behaviour. Interestingly it found that only the attitude dimension of TPB had a significant relationship with purchase intention, whereas subjective norms and perceived behavioural control did not show a significant relationship with the consumer intention variable.     

Personality and balanced psychological contracts: The mediating roles of epistemic curiosity and rule‐following behavior

This study extends prior research on the relationships between personality constructs and types of psychological contracts by exploring how the Big Five traits predict balanced psychological contracts. Further, we determine whether epistemic curiosity and rule‐following behavior are key mediators of the proposed relationships. We tested our proposed hypotheses using three‐wave time‐lagged data from 469 respondents. The results indicated that openness to experience was positively associated and both conscientiousness and neuroticism were negatively associated with balanced contracts. Extraversion and agreeableness were not associated with balanced contracts. We also established the mediating role of epistemic curiosity in the relationships between personality traits and balanced contracts, but there was no support for the mediating role of rule‐following behavior in the present study. These findings have important implications for managers and organizations in terms of selecting the right person for a job (person‐job fit) and ensuring employee retention (person‐organization fit), hence having a bottom‐line effect on firm performance. Future research directions are also discussed.     

Do banking system transparency and competition affect nonperforming loans in the Chinese banking sector?

The increasing importance of transparency practices and the improving status of bank competition in China are rarely explored in nonperforming loans (NPLs) literature. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine banking system transparency and competition along with macroeconomic and bank-specific variables as determinants of NPL. We use the two-step system GMM dynamic panel model for Chinese banks based on annual data from 2000 to 2014. Our results indicate that high transparency in the Chinese banking system decreases poor-quality assets but not in the case of government-owned banks, whereas increase in competition increases NPL. Moreover, we find mixed results in the context of macroeconomics and bank-specific variables. Our study has practical implications in risk management practices and macro prudential policies.     

Too much of a good thing: The interactive effects of cultural values and core job characteristics on hindrance stressors and employee performance outcomes

This study contributes to research on core job characteristics by examining when employees may perceive enriched jobs as a hindrance stressor and in turn may experience lower performance at work. Utilizing time-lagged data collected from a sample of 386 employee–coworker dyads and drawing on cognitive appraisal theory of stress and coping, we explore the mediating role of hindrance stressors on the relationship between core job characteristics and key employee performance outcomes (i.e., creativity, counterproductive work behaviors, in-role performance, and organizational citizenship behaviors) and the moderating roles of cultural values (i.e., power distance and uncertainty avoidance) in influencing this mediation. The results supported the hypotheses, providing evidence that the experience of hindrance stressors mediates the relationship between core job characteristics and job performance outcomes when employees score high on power distance and uncertainty avoidance cultural values, and not when their scores on these cultural values were low. Practical implications and future research are discussed.     

Trade openness and income inequality in China and the SAARC Region

The paper empirically examines the effects of trade liberalisation on income inequality in China and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation countries. Panel data analysis is conducted for the period of 1973 to 2012. The results show that liberal trade policies have increased income inequality in these countries. These results are robust to alternative liberalisation measures. The control variables used have differing effects on income distribution. Per capita income has an increasing effect on income inequality, while education, financial development, financial openness, democracy, and government size are shown to reduce income inequality. These outcomes can be expected to have important policy implications for the use of trade liberalisation in these countries.     

Research of two-period insurance contract model with a low compensation period under adverse selection

The phenomenon of adverse selection caused by asymmetric information dominates the insurance market. In this paper, based on principal-agent theory, we establish a two-period dynamic insurance contract model with a low compensation period. This model introduces the tools of a low compensation period and the increase and decrease in the bonus to identify the risk types of policyholders. We prove that this model can achieve a strict Pareto improvement relative to the two-period static insurance contract model with a low compensation period. Moreover, we also graphically analyze the conclusion, which can help insurance companies to design more comprehensive insurance contracts.     

An analysis of political uncertainty and corporate investment cycles in Pakistan

Quality & Quantity - This paper documents the cycles in corporate investments around national elections in Pakistan from 2000 to 2016. It employed the investment-Q model as the baseline...     

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.     

EQUITY CAPITAL, PROFIT SHARING CONTRACTS, AND INVESTMENT: THEORY AND EVIDENCE

The potential effect of financial variables on the level of investment is among the key issues in contemporary financial economics. Some researchers have claimed that there is an inherent risk in the Islamic profit-and-loss sharing scheme that replaces the western fixed-interest rate system. This paper argues that such concerns are baseless. In an Islamic framework, equity capital (i.e., strong financial position) and the profit-sharing ratio are primary determinants of investment. It is shown that both factors could enhance the firm's business reputation and its investment activities. The paper, in so doing, constructs a two-period equilibrium model of profit-sharing contracts. An optimal solution for the investment function is derived for the banking firm. Besides equity capital and the profit-sharing ratio, other relevant determinants of investment are also considered, including depreciation and expected inflation. Moreover, unlike most previous research in this area, the resultant investment (and profitsharing ratio) functions are subjected to empirical testing using data from a representative Islamic bank.