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This paper proposes a new class of estimators for the autoregressive coefficient of a dynamic panel data model with random individual effects and nonstationary initial condition. The new estimators we introduce are weighted averages of the well-known first difference (FD) GMM/IV estimator and the pooled ordinary least squares (POLS) estimator. The proposed procedure seeks to exploit the differing strengths of the FD GMM/IV estimator relative to the pooled OLS estimator. In particular, the latter is inconsistent in the stationary case but is consistent and asymptotically normal with a faster rate of convergence than the former when the underlying panel autoregressive process has a unit root. By averaging the two estimators in an appropriate way, we are able to construct a class of estimators which are consistent and asymptotically standard normal, when suitably standardized, in both the stationary and the unit root case. The results of our simulation study also show that our proposed estimator has favorable finite sample properties when compared to a number of existing estimators.

The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of the shadow economy on three sustainable development indicators while considering the moderating effect of the governance quality, and to highlight the non-linearity of the considered relationship.

A sample of 82 countries covering the period from 1996 to 2017. The dynamic first-differenced generalized method of moments (FD-GMM) panel threshold model is implemented to control for non-linearity.

The shadow economy hinders sustainable development in countries with low-governance quality, while the opposite result holds in countries with high-governance quality. The critical thresholds triggering the switch from one regime to another vary across the sustainable development indicators. Boosting growth requires enhancing the legal system and the economic dimension of governance, while promoting environmental quality requires the implementation and enforcement of specific environment-friendly regulations.

The study addresses non-linearity and the moderating effect of governance quality. The use of six governance indicators allows to gauge the ability of each governance dimension to curb the negative effects of the shadow economy. Considering the three objectives of sustainable development allows to identify specific policy recommendations for each of them.

The recent collapse of the corporate giant Steinhoff in South Africa (SA) has highlighted the risks of a dominant Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and an ineffective governing board. For this reason, the purpose of this paper is to scrutinize the influence of CEO power attributes and independent governing boards on the growth of a Johannesburg stock exchange-listed firm.

The purpose of this paper is to answer the research question “Under the monitoring role of the board, what CEO attributes, theoretically and in practice preeminent successful firm growth strategies?” This question was answered by examining 130 companies over six years using the econometric methodology of generalized least squares and ordinary least squares with the specific inclusion of generalized method of moments estimation due to its efficiency in controlling for unobserved heterogeneity, endogeneity, autocorrelation, heteroscedasticity, amongst others. The proxies for CEO power are CEO tenure, turnover and professional skills as well as the explanatory variable of board vigilance. The response variable was firm growth.

This study found that CEO tenure is negatively correlated with firm growth indicating that long-tenured CEOs may stagnate the firm's growth. Furthermore, CEO turnover was positively correlated with firm growth indicating that a new CEO may bring innovative strategies that link to this study's finding on CEO tenure. The membership of CEOs to accounting professional bodies and board vigilance are also positively correlated to firm growth.

SA firms' growth policy does not solely depend on the neoclassical fundamental determinants of profitability, net worth, and cash flows. Since the value relevance of assessing CEO attributes as well as board vigilance in the SA market has proved to be very significant and will contribute to future decision making on growth strategies. This study innovatively illustrates the different drivers of firm growth, which is distinct from the normal macroeconomic indicators. The practical contribution of the study lies in the fact that organizations now discern which CEO attributes contribute to sustainability and profitability.

The current depressed economic environment has several negative implications for the citizens of SA. The rising unemployment levels and inflation has deteriorated living conditions. For the economy to recover, SA needs its listed companies to remain strong performers to protect stakeholder interests and attract investments. The people responsible for steering the companies through this difficult time are the CEOs with the governing board protecting the public interest. This study examines these two important constructs concerning firm growth.

This study uniquely used a firm growth variable as opposed to the multitude of studies that used firm performance variables. Furthermore, this study's robustness was bolstered by an extensive theoretical framework employed to examine the value of a CEO as a firm growth stimulator. The period of this study is also unique as it examines firms in the aftermath of the global recession of 2008. This study provides a fresh perspective on firm growth indicators and has key implications for policymakers, stakeholders and regulatory establishments.

This study aims to examine the price and income elasticities of short- and long-run industrial electricity demand in Brazil between 2003 and 2020. The research also examines the impacts of COVID-19 in Brazil’s industrial electricity sector, including an analysis in states more and less industrialized.

Dynamic adjustments models in panel data are used to present robust estimates and analyze the impact of different methodologies on reported elasticities.

The short-run price elasticity is estimated at −0.448, while the long-run values are around −1.60. Regarding income elasticity, the value is 0.069 in the short-run and is concentrated in 0.25 in the long-run. The inelastic results of income show that the industrial demand for electric energy follows the trend of loss of competitiveness of the Brazilian industry in the past years. In addition, the price of natural gas, the level of employment, and, in specific cases, the level of imports also influence industrial electricity demand.

The research is a pioneer in the investigation of the industrial behavior of electricity of the Brazilian industrial branch, using as control variables, the average temperature, and the level of rainfall, this one, so important for a country whose main source is hydroelectric. In addition, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first study, which is prepared to analyze the effects of COVID-19 on electric consumption in the industrial sector, investigating these impacts, including in the states considered more and less industrialized. The estimates generated may help in the design of the Brazilian energy policy.

The study examines whether the growth effect of government spending is contingent on the level of institutional environment prevalent in Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

The study adopts the more refined and more appropriate dynamic threshold panel by Seo and Shin (2016) and made applicable be Seo et al. (2019). The technique models a nonlinear asymmetric dynamics and cross-sectional heterogeneity simultaneously in a dynamic threshold panel data framework.

The results show that there is a threshold effect in the government spending-growth relationship. Specifically, the authors found that the impact of government spending on economic growth is positive and statistically significant only above a certain threshold level of institutional development. Below that threshold, the effect of government spending on growth is insignificant and negative at best. The findings suggest that government spending-growth nexus is contingent on the level of Institutional quality.

Unlike previous studies that adopt the linear interaction model which pre-impose a priori conditional restrictions, this study adopts the dynamic threshold panel framework which allows the lagged dependent variable and endogenous covariates.

The purpose of this study is to provide an empirical analysis of the impact of external debt on total factor productivity (TFP) and growth along with the TFP channel through which external debt affects the growth of heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs).

This study uses panel data econometrics; basically, the seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) and alternative non-linear (panel threshold) models. For robustness check, it also uses panel-corrected standard errors, feasible generalized least squares and SUR (using alternative variables).

External debt significantly reduces both TFP and growth. Besides, it confirms that the relationship between external debt and TFP and gross domestic product growth is non-linear. Further external debt can affect the growth of HIPCs through the TFP channel. However, the threshold model result reveals weak evidence of threshold values although there are some threshold values of 67 and 54 for TFP and growth models, respectively.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study on most concerned countries (HIPCs) that shows a detailed and complete analysis of the TFP channel and the impact of external debt on growth. Thus, it provides appropriate and sound policies that consider the unique characteristics of the countries. Unlike most previous findings, this study does not support an inverted U-shape relationship between external debt and growth. Further, it provides insights into the relationships among TFP, external debt and growth. Moreover, it considers basic panel econometric tests like cross-sectional dependence, uses a non-linear simultaneous equations model along with the alternative non-linear model and is supported by different robustness checks.

A vital resource for attracting investments and boosting economic growth is compliance with corporate-governance practices. To achieve firm growth, businesses often rely on leverage as a source of finance, which has tax-saving benefits but could attract financial distress costs. In this context, this study aims to examine the relationship between corporate governance and the use of debt financing in Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE)-listed companies.

This study used a six-year period to examine 713 annual reports in an unbalanced panel of 130 JSE-listed companies from 2011 to 2016. The empirical econometric methodology used was the two-step difference generalised method of moments estimation model, which is robust in controlling endogeneity and potential bi-directional causality between leverage and corporate governance.

This study illustrated that corporate governance practices and firm-specific variables such as profitability, firm size and firm age have a significant influence on the capital structure decisions of JSE-listed firms. This study found support for four out of the six hypotheses. CEO duality and director ownership are positively correlated with leverage, whereas audit committee independence and board size are negatively correlated with leverage. This study also found contraventions of board independence, audit committee independence and CEO duality. The technology sector was the least compliant, with only 40 per cent of their boards being independent. The consumer-services sector had the maximum presence of CEO duality (7 per cent). The industrial sector had the highest average director ownership (18 per cent). The heath-care sector had 28 per cent of their audit committees in contravention of the independence rule.

A useful analysis of the theoretical frameworks used by academic writers are provided. This study revealed the governance practices contravened by the relevant sectors, as well as the associations between corporate governance and leverage.

The study contributes to the literature on capital structure and corporate governance by an emerging economy such as South Africa (SA) which has not been explored. This study’s results have key implications for policy-makers, practitioners, investors and regulatory authorities. This study informs these constituencies about a set of governance attributes that are catalysts and/or inhibitors of leverage.

This study examines the non-linear impact of financial development on income inequality and analyses the mediators through which financial development affects income inequality.

The study uses a dynamic panel threshold method with an endogeneous threshold variable on a comprehensive sample of 85 countries over the period of 1996-2015.

The author finds that financial development activities increase income inequality in developed countries. However, financial development promotes income equality in developing countries. Further, the study finds that education and institutional quality are the channels through which financial development has non-linear impacts on income inequality.

The study explores relatively new method to examine the nonlinear impact of financial development and also considers new dataset for the main explanatory variable.

The study hypothesized that the impact of board diversity on financial distress (FD) is not direct but rather mediated by the firm’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to examine the impact of CSR as a mediator in the board diversity–FD relationship.

The study examined six board diversity dimensions – age, gender, nationality, education and tenure in 81 nonfinancial Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX)-listed firms from 2010 to 2021. The CSR engagement of the sample firms is evaluated using a multidimensional financial approach and the likelihood of FD is computed using Altman’s Z-score. The system-generalized method of moments estimator is used to meet the study objectives. In addition, several tests are run to determine the robustness of the study’s findings.

Based on the procedure for mediation analysis outlined by Baron and Kenny (1986), the authors found that CSR is significantly inversely associated with the likelihood of FD. Second, board diversity variables age, gender and national diversity were positively associated with CSR. Third, board age, gender and national diversity are significantly inversely related to FD. Finally, it was found that there is partial mediation between board age diversity and FD, whereas full mediation is shown between board age diversity and FD and between board nationality diversity and FD.

This study provides practical insights into PSX’s board diversity for companies, regulators and policymakers.

This research studies the connection between board diversity and FD. In addition, the current study extended the analysis by testing for the first time the mediating role of CSR in the diversity–distress relationship, particularly in the context of an emerging economy.

The paper examines whether there is a threshold between financial development and poverty in African economies.

The study adopts the innovative dynamic panel threshold model of Seo and Shin (2016) made practicable by Seo et al. (2019)–the model estimates threshold relationship even in the presence of endogeneity. Also, following the recommendations of Cihak et al. (2013) and Sahay et al. (2015), we also adopt a robust measure of financial development based on the four pillars of financial deepening, stability, efficiency and access derived from the principal component analysis (PCA).

The empirical results show that there exists a threshold level of financial development necessary for poverty reduction in Africa.

Our result is important for policy formulations. First, individual African country must discover the level of financial development necessary for spurring poverty reduction. Second, policymakers, especially in lower-income countries, must keep improving their financial sector development to achieve the threshold level necessary for achieving poverty reduction even though financial development might seem less relevant at its present level.

The policymakers in Africa should note that there exists a threshold level of financial development that reduces poverty. Hence, the present level of financial development might have not yielded a considerate effect on poverty. Still, the policymakers must keep pushing on until the threshold is achieved.

Financial development reduces poverty level but it must reach a certain threshold level before it does so. So, we advise African policymakers to continue to develop their financial sector to achieve this threshold.

This seems to be the first work to document the threshold relationship using the dynamic panel threshold. Besides, the study specifically concentrates on Africa dividing the continent into different income levels. Moreover, we adopt a robust measure of financial development unlike extant studies on Africa.