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The Motivations and Barriers related to Entrepreneurs in the Farming Sector: The Case of Ontario
No full textOntario, one of Canada’s largest provinces, is a strong agricultural producer and plays an important role in Ontario's economy regarding job creation and GDP. It is therefore essential to better understand how Ontario’s farmers' businesses are created and developed in order to render the economy more resilient. This research attempted to identify Ontarian farmers' entrepreneurs’ motives for self-employment and which obstacles they identified as major business threats. In that perspective, a questionnaire derived from the literature was administered to a sample of 60 Ontarian farmer-entrepreneurs. Results revealed that the farmers entrepreneurs in Ontario were primarily motivated by independent goals, by opposition to extrinsic goals such as a desire to increase sales and profits. At the same time, the lack of reliable personnel and government bureaucracy were perceived as major barriers to entrepreneurial success
Non-Linearity in Corporate Finance Studies: Bank Size Matters When It Comes to Leverage Components
No full textWe propose a regression-based procedure to account for non-linearity, while maintaining robustness to multicollinearity and endogeneity. To illustrate our method, we focus on capital structure, a fundamental topic in corporate finance, and examine excess, non-deposit and short-term components of leverage. We model those leverage measures as functions of competition, diversification, and liquidity, interacting with bank size. Our analysis begins with fully specified second-order models for each determinant in combination with bank size, revealing significant non-linear effects. To address potential multicollinearity among second-order terms, we apply lasso regression for variable selection and initial coefficient estimation. We then augment the selected models with bank and time fixed effects to control for unobserved heterogeneity and address endogeneity concerns. Our findings indicate that linear specifications often misattribute significance to less relevant variables by failing to account for underlying non-linearities and interactions. This omission leads to biased estimates and distorted interpretations. Our approach provides a practical and reliable method for obtaining unbiased and interpretable estimates in the presence of complex variable relationships
The Role of Trade, R&D and Human Capital in Growth: A Story of the Chess Piece Fallacy
No full textAn eye-opening econometric analysis of real GDP growth from 1980 to 2020 reveals the divergent and dynamic impacts of R&D activities and human capital on the Indian and Chinese growth regimes. Similar in population quantum, GDP and growth patterns before 1980, the two countries parted ways. China grew its economy by an average of 10% annually between 1980 and 2020, reaching a tremendous valuation of 10 trillion USD. In contrast, India experienced several economic downturns and reached an economic valuation of 3 trillion USD following growth at an average rate of 6% annually after 1990. In this study, the endogenous growth model is applied to explain the discrepancy between these figures via a comparison of the tremendous advances of each country. The ARDL-bounds approach to cointegration, followed by the Toda– Yamamoto test for causality, reveals that R&D and human capital contributed greatly to propelling growth in China, while in India, GDP growth was influenced by a nonsignificant, negative coefficient of human capital and a lower contribution from R&D. India missed an opportunity for growth because of policy restrictions on the creation of high-quality human capital, which downscaled its prospects via lower labor productivity. Moreover, under Deng Xiaoping's leadership, China developed a successful policy framework nurturing human and intellectual capital
Strategies for Implementing Mandatory Environmental Disclosures: Lessons From Europe
No full textThe introduction of mandatory environmental disclosure laws has created significant uncertainty for numerous American companies. Firms may be compelled to provide assured environmental reports through state and international legislation. This study aims to explore measures to effectively disclose audited environmental information through a systematic review. The practical recommendations propose that mandatory environmental disclosures should be integrated as a strategic objective, the board of directors should oversee the implementation of disclosure requirements, organizational culture and leadership should act as catalysts for success, assurance providers should adopt a consultative approach in their processes, and environmental performance should be evaluated
Corporate Governance and Market Performance of Seasoned Equity Offerings: Evidence From Chinese Listed A-Share Companies
No full textThis study examines how corporate governance affects the market performance of seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) in Chinese A-share firms from 1998 to 2001. Using a sample of 458 SEOs, we analyze the role of governance attributes, including state ownership, board structure, independence, and CEO duality, on both short-term announcement effects and long-term stock returns. Results show that state ownership and CEO duality are negatively associated with long-run performance, while board independence enhances outcomes. New share issues elicit more favorable short-term responses than rights offerings. The findings highlight the importance of internal governance mechanisms in influencing investor reactions and capital market performance in emerging economies
The Future of Work Is Informal
No full textThis paper is a literature study on informal work. It is based upon the fact that informal work is prevalent in most parts of the world, especially in the Global South, where more than 80% of humanity lives. The paper first looks at work relations in the past and present in the Global North with special attention to the existence of a dual system where workers rights are less guaranteed for certain groups such as migrant workers or racial minorities, as well as the Global South, where workers rights have never been fully respected. The paper then turns to the rationale for informal work, grounded in four theories; the neo-liberal/dual economy school, the Neo-marxian/ structuralist school, the legalist/institutional school and the voluntarist school. These theories also provide some insight into the business rationale for informal work, which seems very strong. The final chapter takes a look into the future and provides six reasons why the future of work will likely be more and more informal. It also makes suggestions for a new paradigm based upon recognition of the realities of worker rights in the Global South and how people cope with that. This may form the basis for more effective ways to promote workers rights
Food Chains, Ecosystems and Myths: A Lasting Anthropological Concern
No full textBefore the rise of environmental conservation movements in the 1960s, anthropologists had already begun to advocate concepts of ecosystem analysis as the key to understand how humans maintain sustainable interactions with their surroundings. This lasting concern, which crisscrosses temporal, regional, and disciplinary boundaries, led to investigations on how multifaceted cultural mechanisms are developed in this human-environmental feedback loop. For instance, questions can be asked: How have the domestication of plants and animals altered the substance and nutritional levels of our daily life? Or how have the availability and variations in food chains flows regulated the rhythms of social activities? Last but not least, how have folk tales and myths about these cultural mechanisms been incorporated internally to enhance and reinforce group cohesion and legitimize traditional cultures? Looking at these issues in the Chinese cultural context, we may conclude that Shen Nong worship is the counterpart of the holistic concept of ecosystems in anthropology
Introducing Cultural Entropy as a Framework for Understanding Cultural Tourism
No full textThis paper explores cultural entropy as a novel framework for understanding cultural tourism. It examines how increasing cultural complexity impacts authenticity, sustainability, and accessibility, highlighting strategies to manage uncertainty in cultural interactions. Using a simple model that relates a tourist's utility to their capacity for cultural entropy and the carry cost in entropy of multiple cultural competencies, an optimal number of cultural alternatives is deduced based on their relative preference between the number of alternatives and cognitive space to savor them. Future research into managing entropy as it relates to tourist impact on cultural homogenization, heritage conservation and visitor engagement are suggested
Causal Effects of Low Income on Obesity: Business and Health Insights From a National Survey and Machine Learning Analysis With Applied Econometrics Technique
No full textThis study investigates the causal impact of low income on Body Mass Index (BMI) using data from the 2017–2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). While previous research has established a correlation between socioeconomic status and obesity, this study employs Double Machine Learning (DML) to identify causal effects, controlling for confounders such as age, gender, education, ethnicity, and household size. The full sample (n = 8,005) and two subgroups, high BMI and high BMI + low income, were analyzed. Results from DML indicate a statistically significant causal effect, with low-income status increasing BMI by approximately 0.49 units (p < 0.001). Subgroup analyses reveal that low-income individuals, especially older adults and females, face disproportionately higher obesity risks. These findings underscore the need for equity-centered public health strategies targeting the socioeconomic roots of obesity, including nutritional support, education, and community-based interventions
The Importance of Digitization of Tax Administration the Republic of Serbia
No full textAfter three industrial revolutions, a fourth is underway worldwide, which will completely eliminate the gap between technology and people and affect everything we do. Digital transformation or digitization is a global phenomenon, so it has not bypassed Serbia either. The Government of the Republic of Serbia has recognized the importance of digitization and the development of electronic administration; thus, transformed public administrations will change the way they work, become more economical, perform their tasks better, and become more transparent.
The tax administration in Serbia, like other administrations in the state apparatus, recognized the need to improve its operations and adapt to technological developments. The tax administration has taken significant steps in the digitization process, including the transition from paper to digital data and the creation of the e-taxes portal. By using new technologies, the reduction of cots and the time needed to fulfill tax obligations is affected, which makes tax administration more efficient, and the state would have stable revenues and a predictable tax system.