Search Results (30)

This study examines the transmission of monetary policy shocks across euro area economies using a Bayesian Panel Vector Autoregressive (PVAR) framework over the period 2010Q1–2024Q4. The analysis focuses on three country groups—Core, Periphery, and Central and Eastern European (CEE) economies—in order to assess whether monetary policy transmission differs across structurally distinct segments of the monetary union. Monetary policy shocks are identified using high-frequency surprises from the Euro Area Monetary Policy Database (EA-MPD). The results indicate substantial heterogeneity in monetary policy transmission across country groups. Core economies generally exhibit more stable adjustment patterns, whereas Periphery economies tend to display greater sensitivity to monetary disturbances, particularly during periods of financial stress. The CEE economies follow a distinct adjustment path associated with their structural characteristics and ongoing convergence processes. Regime-specific estimations further reveal that transmission mechanisms vary across alternative monetary policy environments, with the strongest statistically supported responses observed during the post-sovereign-debt adjustment period. Overall, the evidence indicates that monetary policy transmission within the euro area remains both structurally asymmetric and regime dependent. The study contributes to the literature by combining externally identified monetary policy shocks, Bayesian PVAR estimation, and regime-specific analysis within a unified empirical framework. Full article

The rapid expansion of housing financialization (REF) has profoundly reshaped China’s subnational fiscal landscape, yet the dynamic nature of this relationship remains under-explored. This study investigates how the impact of REF on fiscal deficits (DB) evolves over time and identifies the specific transmission channels mediating this influence. First, we construct a multidimensional REF index by integrating enterprise, household, market, financial, and industry indicators via the fuzzy-TOPSIS method. A Markov Regime Switching model identifies three distinct volatility regimes, revealing that REF dynamics are highly sensitive to policy shifts and exhibit significant path dependency. Second, using a Time-Varying Parameter Vector Autoregression model, we find that REF initially functioned as a fiscal stabilizer providing short-term revenue relief; however, as financialization deepened, REF transformed into a procyclical driver of deficit expansion. Third, we further decompose this mechanism, demonstrating that land finance (LAND) and local government debt (UID) amplify systemic fiscal fragility as dynamic mediating channels. Finally, due to the unsustainability of the current “real estate-land-debt” model, we propose policy interventions including the institutionalization of fiscal-debt firewalls, the formation of counter-cyclical fiscal risk reserve funds, and an accelerated transition toward a stable, tax-oriented revenue structure to mitigate systemic risks. Full article

A state of terminal stagnation is often reached by software projects despite the presence of advanced tools, and these occurrences are defined within this study as software engineering deadpoints, where the cost of system recovery is frequently found to be higher than the actual value of the software. While many factors are seen to lead toward project failure, it is suggested by the evidence that technical debts are the main cause of such failures. A significant number (23.5%) of these fatal issues is created during the early architectural phases of development, and it is noted that these problems often remain hidden until they become unrecoverable. The data collected during this research show that projects facing technical obstacles (Recovery Score: 4.24) are much harder to save than those suffering with process obstacles (Recovery Score: 5.38). It was also observed that a steady reluctance to refactor old logic and an excessive number of code revisions are seen as the most reliable signs that a project is approaching a point of no return. Because these warning signs are often overlooked by management, the eventual failure of the system is often viewed as an unexpected event rather than a predictable outcome of poor early choices. By defining these terminal states, this work provides those in leadership roles with a method to differentiate between minor delays and total failure, thereby assisting teams in avoiding the heavy economic losses associated with unproductive development paths. Full article

Sustainability performance is an important criterion for investors and lenders when making financing decisions. This study aims to analyze whether sustainability governance influences sustainability performance and the extent to which sustainability performance affects a company’s cost of debt. This study analyzed 209 publicly listed companies in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. Sustainability governance was measured using two proxies from the Refinitiv Eikon database: (1) the existence of a sustainability committee and (2) the existence of sustainability assurance. Sustainability performance and the cost of debt were assessed using scores obtained from the same database. Quantitative analysis was performed using descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and structural equation modeling (SEM) with path analysis. The results showed that sustainability governance has a strong positive impact on sustainability performance. However, the results also show that higher sustainability performance leads to a higher cost of debt. This finding suggests that companies that integrate sustainability into their core business strategies face challenges in obtaining funding to support sustainability initiatives. This research implies that a well-developed sustainable ecosystem needs to be established before companies can realize a lower cost of debt. Full article

Climate change is a critical sustainability issue that influences investors’ decisions. Numerous organizations have implemented climate-related policies and established governance structures to address this challenge. This study examines the extent to which climate change management performance affects firm value. This research utilizes 13 climate change management performance indicators from the Refinitiv Eikon Database. Firm value was measured using the price-to-book value (PBV) ratio, with firm size, profitability, and cost of debt included as control variables. This study examines 531 public companies in three Southeast Asian countries. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and path analysis. The results indicate that robust climate change management performance positively affects firm value. However, significant variations exist across countries and industries regarding climate change management practices. These findings highlight the necessity for organizations to strengthen their climate change management efforts by preparing comprehensive performance disclosures. Enhanced transparency can provide clearer insights for environmentally conscious investors, potentially fostering positive market reactions toward the company. Full article

Information asymmetry between banks and enterprises in the credit market is essentially the microfoundation of financial risk generation. The frequent occurrence of corporate debt defaults, mainly due to the behavior of short-term debt for long-term use (hereinafter referred to as “SDLU”), further aggravates the contagion path from individual liquidity crisis to systemic repayment crisis. In order to test whether bank financial technology (hereinafter referred to as “BankFintech”) can mitigate SDLU and reduce the possibility of financial risks, this study matched the loan data of China’s A-share listed companies with the patent data of bank-invented Fintech from 2013 to 2022 to construct the BankFintech Development Index for empirical analysis. The empirical results show that the development of BankFintech can significantly inhibit SDLU. The mechanism test reveals that BankFintech reduces bank credit risk and liquidity risk by lowering firms’ risk-weighted assets, improving capital adequacy and liquidity ratios, tilts banks’ lending preferences toward duration-matched long-term financing, and “forces” enterprises to take the initiative to improve their financial health and information transparency, enhance their ability to obtain long-term loans, and realize the active management of mismatch risk. Heterogeneity analysis finds that the effect is more significant in non-state-owned enterprises and technology-intensive industries. Further analysis shows that the level of enterprise digitization, the intensity of financial regulation, and related financial policies significantly moderate the marginal effect between the two. This study verified the “Porter’s Risk Mitigation Hypothesis” of Fintech, providing empirical evidence for effectively cracking the financial vulnerability caused by debt maturity mismatch and deepening financial supply-side reform. Full article

Debt collection companies buy overdue debts on the market in order to collect them and recover the highest possible amount of a debt. The pursuit of debt recovery by employees of collection agencies is a very demanding task. The aim of the article is to propose a rule-based model for managing the process of mass debt collection in a debt collection company, which will make the debt collection process more efficient. To achieve this, we have chosen a decision tree as a machine learning technique best suited for creating rules based on extensive data from the debt collection company. The classification accuracy of the decision tree, regardless of the possibility of acquiring rule-based knowledge, proved to be the highest among the tested machine learning methods, with an accuracy rate of 85.5%. Through experiments, we generated 16 stable rules to assist in the debt collection process. The proposed approach allows for the elimination of debts that are difficult to recover at the initial stage of the recovery process and to decide whether to pursue amicable debt collection or to escalate the debt recovery process to legal action. Our approach also enables the determination of specific actions during each stage of the proceedings. Abandoning certain actions or reducing their frequency will alleviate the burden on collection agency employees and help to avoid the typical burnout associated with this line of work. This is the path to making the organizational culture of a collection agency more sustainable. Our model also confirms the possibility of using data from debt collection companies to automatically generate procedural rules and automate the process of purchasing and collecting debts. However, this would require a larger set of attributes than what we currently possess. Full article

Empirical corporate failure studies focusing on specific economic activities are increasing in number, as this path can be a more precise investigation of default, although still there is a gap in the literature reviews at the sector level. The purpose of this study is to focus on the hotel sector and isolate the financial determinants linked to hotel default, as the approach of accounting-based models is the most frequent practice. To arrange the variety of outputs, a thorough design is applied based on specific inclusion and exclusion criteria, leading to 29 studies, which are further narrated, focusing mainly on the financial dimension. In addition, information on the study design is recorded in an aggregated table. The most frequent stylized results show that debt and liability measures increase the default risk, while measures of profitability and size in terms of total assets reduce the risk. This review addresses the calls for a sectoral focus and provides an up-to-date financial overview of hotel default assessments. It further aims to benefit academia, as it can act as a base for further development, as well as stakeholders involved in the financial sustainability of the hotel sector. Full article

Using a new systematic method based on text mining and econometric analysis, this paper performs an empirical analysis on the text data and panel data of 195 enterprises in China’s 23 manufacturing sub-sectors from 2011 to 2020, constructs the evaluation index system of sustainable development ability (SDA) of manufacturing enterprises and then uses the non-parametric Mann–Whitney–Wilcoxon tests of inter-group means and the polynomial Logit regression clustering to comparatively analyze the impacts of pure manufacturing (P-), servitization (S-), digitalization (D-) and digital servitization (DS-) paths on the SDA of manufacturing enterprises. The results show that, in terms of profitability as well as each social and environmental dimension, the S-, D- and DS-paths are better choices than the P-path, while, in terms of production ability, debt-paying ability and development ability, there may be “digitalization paradox” or “digital servitization paradox”, but no evidence of “servitization paradox” is found. According to the research results, enterprises should comprehensively evaluate their internal and external conditions, deeply understand the prerequisites and requirements of each development path, actively predict and respond to the risks and challenges they face, be fully prepared and maintain a cautious attitude. Full article

The purpose of this study is to investigate barriers experienced by dental students when choosing professional careers. An anonymous online survey with eight questions extracted from the annual American Dental Education Association Survey for U.S. dental school seniors (UDS) and two Japan-specific questions was given to Japanese dental school seniors (JDS) in 2019, 2020, and 2021. The results were compared to UDS data. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Harvard Medical School and included 1053 respondents. The parental education and income levels of JDS were higher than UDS, and educational debt of JDS was lower than UDS. The top reason for choosing dentistry for JDS was influence and expectation from family members, while the top reason for UDS was service to others. Although both groups showed interest in teaching in academia, the majority chose to enter private practice immediately post-graduation, and would consider teaching during their mid or late career. Barriers for dental students staying in academia varied between the two countries. For JDS, the main barrier was an anxiety around stable income. For UDS, it was their educational debt. Dental educators and policymakers need to consider these barriers to improve the sustainability of dental students choosing an academic career path. Full article

Virginia’s Readjuster Party was the most successful interracial political coalition in the post-Reconstruction South. Initially arising from a conflict over the payment of Virginia’s massive public debt, the new party became a force of liberal reform and democracy in the Old Dominion. It represented an alternative path before Jim Crow segregation and disfranchisement became the norm. While the Readjusters have long interested historians, the significant work performed by Black Readjusters in building and sustaining the always-tenuous coalition has gone understudied. Knowing their white counterparts were anxious about interracial political alliances, Black Readjusters eased these anxieties by using the Lost Cause. Black Readjusters condemned carpetbaggers as corrupt and repurposed the myth of the faithful slave to strengthen the interracial coalition, press for their own demands, and demonstrate their status as true southerners. The strategy and its seeming contradictions succeeded in some cases and failed in others, and its ultimate effects remain unclear. By shifting focus to Black Readjusters’ coalition-building labors, this article centers Black political activism and challenges the presumptions scholars make about interracial politics and white supremacy. Full article

Information technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence promote the development of the digital economy, accelerate the digital transformation of enterprises, and continuously facilitate the reform of enterprise production, organization, and management. This study takes Chinese A-share listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges as a sample to examine the influence of financial shared services on the corporate debt cost under the digitalization background based on the perspectives of stakeholders such as creditors, shareholders, and society. This study found that financial sharing can reduce the corporate debt cost. The path mechanism test finds that financial sharing reduces the corporate debt cost mainly by improving the quality of corporate accounting information and decreasing financial risk. The result shows that the effect of financial sharing on reducing the corporate debt cost is positively moderated by enterprise digitalization. Further analysis based on the stakeholder perspective shows that the effect of financial shared services on reducing the corporate debt cost is enhanced by the equity balance and social responsibility fulfillment. The findings provide insights and evidence on how to use financial shared services to improve debt management and enhance creditor protection in the digital context. Full article

Optimal financial planning plays a vital role in maintaining concentration and on the path as the organization extends, when new challenges materialize, and when unpredictable situations pounded. This study aims to develop and implement a goal programming model to evaluate financial planning based on the annual financial report of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), which assisted it in developing the financial planning model. This study is mainly designed to analyze SABIC’s budgeting structure; therefore, in order to maximize the benefits from the whole budget, goal programming is implemented for the entire budget. As a result of this study, we identified the following objectives as specific: reduced expenses, increased revenue, increased net profit, increased fixed assets, reduced debt, and increased equity share participation as a result of this project. Moreover, the analysis involved determining whether all objectives were met at the end of the study. Consequently, this study will benefit industrial institutions in achieving their financial objectives. Full article

Urban rail transit (URT) promotes sustainable urban development by alleviating traffic congestion and environmental degradation. However, many cities have developed URT projects recently, often encumbering local governments with debt. Land value capture (LVC) is an important theory that explores the new financing modes for urban rail transit. Despite prior studies that have found a positive relationship between URT and property prices based on LVC, limited empirical studies explore sustainable paths to better examine the effect of URT on property prices. This study collects 1036 properties in Xuzhou, China. Meanwhile, multiple regression models are established to analyze the impact mechanism of URT on property prices, and to further examine the combination effects of multidimensional neighborhood infrastructure and URT on property prices from the perspective of sustainable development. The results show that the coefficients of URT in all models are negative, indicating that the property prices decrease as the distance from the URT to the property increases, and the positive coefficient of TRANS implies that the transfer station would raise house prices. Combining Park, School (and Hospital) variables with URT, respectively, the negative coefficients of URT increase from 0.0435 to 0.0846 and 0.0525, and these URT variables are significant, indicating that parks, schools, and hospitals can enhance the effect of URT on property prices. However, adding the Shopping variable, the negative value of URT drops from 0.0435 to 0.0192, and is not significant, which means shopping centers have a restraining impact. Moreover, the combination of parks and schools (and hospitals) can better enhance the effect of URT on property prices (the highest URT negative coefficient is 0.0870). This study can provide a reference for the government to facilitate URT planning and better decision-making. Full article

The provision of formal micro-credit for refugees has been promoted as a dignified way to improve their ability to generate income through small-scale enterprises and reduce poverty. As humanitarian funding declines in protracted displacement situations, such approaches are sought to transform refugees into self-reliant, resilient, entrepreneurial agents who are no longer dependent on aid and can overcome a crisis with their own resources and financial confidence. The paper in hand questions this claim on the basis of new, comprehensive empirical insights on the financial lives of refugees in non-camp settings in Jordan. By applying the perspective of the credit users, not the suppliers, our evidence shows that the pervasive use of debt (mostly informal) does not signify latent demand for formal micro-credit. In a context where refugees face restrictions on right to work, move, set up businesses, and imagine a future in the host country, formal credit cannot improve self-reliance. The paper sheds light on a larger variety of sources of debt that are crucial for refugees to manage their lives. In conclusion, the paper argues that the rhetoric around micro-credit as a path to refugee self-reliance has to be re-visited as problematic, even damaging, and humanitarian actors should push this agenda with caution. Full article