INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL ECONOMICS最新文献

Purpose

Though agriculture has the potential for job creation for the growing population; nevertheless, most Nigerian youth merely see the agricultural sector as a viable opportunity for livelihood. In the quest for food security, as encapsulated in sustainable development goals (SDGs), youth participation in agriculture is essential to unlock the agricultural sector’s potential and ensure adequate food production.

Design/methodology/approach

This study examined the factors influencing youth involvement in agriculture and its impact on food security in Nigeria, using Ekiti and Kwara States. The study engaged a multi-stage random sampling approach. The first stage involved a purposeful selection of the states among youth in agriculture-related activities. The second stage involved randomly selecting five Local Government Areas (LGAs) from each state. The third stage involved a random selection of five communities in the selected LGAs, making it a total of 25 communities for each state. Finally, 20 households were selected per community. In total, 500 respondents were selected from each of the two states, making it a total of 1,000 respondents for the survey. The Foster-Greer-Thorbeck (FGT) analysis uses the logit regression and the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) techniques.

Findings

The results showed that a large proportion (about 95%) of the youth farmers in the study area fell below the food security line (N6448.45) and are food insecure. Findings from the PSM showed that youth in agriculture has no significant impact on food security. The findings from the logit regression showed that gender, age, level of education, land ownership, income, safety net or social protection and value chain are significant determinants of youth participation in agriculture.

Practical implications

This study contributes to the literature by examining the determinants of youth in agriculture and its impact on food security in Nigeria, using Ekiti and Kwara States, by engaging the FGT, logit regression and PSM.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature by examining the determinants of youth in agriculture and its impact on food security in Nigeria, using Ekiti and Kwara States, by engaging the FGT, logit regression and PSM.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-04-2021-0197

Purpose

This study aims to investigate into the dynamic connection between ESG scores and the volatility term structure for Indian companies listed BSE. The study divides the BSE-100 listed companies into two panels based on their median ESG scores in 2022, creating high and low ESG scoring groups to capture volatility structure.

Design/methodology/approach

The study employs time-varying symmetric and asymmetric GARCH models and followed by continuous Wavelet to capture volatility structure and explore comparative resilience behavior.

Findings

The study found similar volatility patterns regardless of ESG scores, nudging doubt on the direct impact of ESG on volatility. Additionally, both high- and low-ESG-scored companies displayed high vulnerabilities during the pandemic, raising questions about the effectiveness of ESG frameworks in capturing risks. Finally, by examining the resilience behavior of ESG-scored companies during the pandemic, our study contributes to the evolving understanding of the intersection between ESG performance and crisis response.

Practical implications

The study carries vital implications for investors and policymakers. It highlights the urgent need to strengthen the ESG framework and scores to shield investors from short- and long-term volatilities and economic vulnerabilities.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study investigating the Indian market by examining the volatility structure and resilience behavior of high- and low-ESG-scored companies during the pandemic.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-02-2024-0113

Purpose

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in countries reacting differently to an ongoing crisis. Latent to this reaction mechanism is the inherent cultural characteristics of each society resulting in differential responses to the epidemic spread. In this study, the moderated moderation role of culture, on information dissemination by media during epidemic recovery-phase has been investigated.

Design/methodology/approach

Hofstede’s cultural factors are hypothesized to moderate the moderating effect of free-liberal media on the relationship of COVID-19 recovery rate and human mobility. Panel regression model, using mobility data and recovery rate across 95 countries for a period of 170 days has been preferred to test the hypotheses. The results are further substantiated using factor wise interaction plots and slope difference analysis.

Findings

The findings suggest that societies with high power distance and masculinity scores strengthen the impact of media on the relationship between COVID-19 recovery rate and mobility whereas, high individualistic and long-term orientation societies weaken the same effect. However, similar conclusions were not confirmed for uncertainty avoidance. Cross-cultural impact, as elucidated by this study, forms a crucial element in policy formulation on epidemic control by indigenous Governing bodies.

Originality/value

While most of the studies emphasizing on cultural characteristics of a society in an epidemic situation covers the growth phase of infection, This research talks about the recovery-phase of the epidemic and the effect of culture.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-04-2023-0314

Purpose

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a dramatic downturn in the global stock markets. Investors look for safe stocks that can provide better risk-adjusted returns. Stocks with higher Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) scores can be good choices for investors. This study focuses on this argument by examining the relationship between ESG indicators and stock returns while considering financial and macroeconomic variables.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, 39 non-financial firms listed in Nifty-50, for which data is available, have been included. Panel data from 2018 to 2021 is collected to examine this relationship in the presence of COVID-19. Additionally, the panel regression method is used.

Findings

The empirical findings indicate a positive relationship between ESG scores and stock returns. This relationship holds even when the control variables like Return on Assets (ROA), Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Return on Equity (ROE), age, size, leverage of the firm, inflation, and crisis period are used in the model.

Originality/value

This study contributes by examining the linkage between ESG indicators and stock return while controlling the impact of the financial and macroeconomic variables in Indian markets, which has not been undertaken so far. Moreover, this is the first study to use the ESG score data of S&P Global, which gives more weight to the material factors of a firm.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-10-2023-0819.

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the impact of governance quality on total unemployment in general and female unemployment in particular in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, comparing the post-Arab Spring period to the pre-Arab Spring era.

Design/methodology/approach

A fixed-effects model was used to analyze data from 15 MENA countries from 2002 to 2019.

Findings

Our results generally indicate that following the Arab Spring, an enhancement in governance quality is linked with a reduction in unemployment in the MENA region, specifically in the Levant and GCC regions, with this reducing effect being stronger for female unemployment compared to total unemployment. Yet, this trend does not hold in North Africa, where government improvements do not result in better employment.

Originality/value

This study uniquely uncovers the different effects of governance quality on unemployment across sub-regions and sheds light on its significant implications on female unemployment. The findings offer valuable insights for policymakers interested in the relationship between governance quality and economic outcomes in the region.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-12-2022-0826

Purpose

This study attempts to quantify the degree of independence of Central Bank of India from both legal and behavioural contexts over the period 1990–1991 to 2018–2019, a period encompassing major developments in the operation and regulation of Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Design/methodology/approach

We followed Jasmine et al. (2019) to calculate the magnitude of de jure independence of RBI and for de facto independence, “turnover rate (TOR) of CB governor” as proposed by Cukierman et al. (1992) is applied.

Findings

The results report that the legal autonomy of RBI increased specifically after the reforms and post formulation of Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). However, the actual independence of RBI remains more or less in line within the critical threshold limit of 0.2.

Practical implications

The study proposes effective implementation of laws and procedures designed to promote the independence of Central Bank of India imperative for an effective monetary operation along with a coordinated fiscal policy.

Originality/value

Targeted study of a particular central bank on its “independence” aspect in general and of the Reserve Bank of India in particular has not been attempted as on date. It is to this end that the present study contributes.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-02-2023-0098.

Purpose

Human development is critical for fostering economic growth and development. Given the importance of human development, this study examines the asymmetric impact of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on human development by decomposing total FDI into positive and negative shocks in five South Asian countries from 1990 to 2021.

Design/methodology/approach

The study uses the panel Non-linear Autoregressive Distributive Lag model (NARDL) to examine asymmetric long and short-run effects of FDI. Further, the direction of causality between HDI and FDI is examined using the recently developed (Joudis et al., 2021) panel granger non-causality test.

Findings

The positive and negative FDI shocks positively impact HDI, but positive shocks have a higher effect than negative shocks in the long run. The Wald Test rejects the long-run symmetric effect, confirming the asymmetric relationship between FDI and human development. More importantly, causality results reveal the FDI-led HDI and HDI-led FDI development in South Asia.

Practical implications

FDI should be encouraged by formulating a well-tailored policy intervention. The development policies should be interlinked with FDI policies. Absorptive capacities such as infrastructure facilities, a threshold level of human capital, and institutions should be strengthened to attract higher FDI into high-tech sectors.

Originality/value

Unlike the previous empirical studies, this study provides asymmetric evidence between FDI and human development in South Asia.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-05-2023-0380.

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to investigate the linkages between intergenerational income mobility and crime for 27 OECD countries, considering different types of crime, family ties, enforcement, in terms of punishment rate and perceived quality of the legal system, redistributive outcomes and government expenditure.

Design/methodology/approach

Using the Global Database of Intergenerational Mobility (GDIM), the empirical analysis is conducted by coupling the principal components analysis with the hierarchical clustering. The variance tests verify the robustness of the clusters.

Findings

Income mobility is higher in those countries where there is high public investment devoted to education and high perception of rule of law to buffer the adverse effects of crime on income mobility. The redistributive policies must be oriented to better the wealth distribution and not only income equality opportunity to decrease crime and to increase income mobility. A plausible existence of “hidden” income mobility emerges from the linkages between income mobility and frauds.

Social implications

More redistributive policies for education, income and wealth equality should be applied in those countries with low income mobility and high violent crime rates; higher punishment rates should be applied to reduce the rates of thefts and frauds in high income mobility countries.

Originality/value

The main contribution is the identification of what type of crime leads to downward income mobility, as well as the role of perceived quality of the legal system, government and family ties in the association between income mobility and crime, suggesting also the potential existence of “hidden” income mobility.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-07-2023-0520

Purpose

The warehouse receipt system (WRS) is critical for farmers because it addresses agricultural market inefficiencies, provides credit access, reduces postharvest losses and increases access to profitable markets. However, its use and implementation across the commodity value chain remain relatively limited in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly among cash crop producers. This study examines cashew farmers' perceptions of WRS implementation and determinants of farmer participation.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 153 cashew farmers from the Bono region of Ghana were sampled using a multistage sampling approach. Perception index analysis and Cragg's double hurdle model were used for the analysis.

Findings

The results revealed that farmers strongly perceived that WRS augmented credit and market access. In addition, farm size, household size, annual income, perception of collateral and higher selling price determined farmers' willingness to participate in WRS.

Research limitations/implications

Despite the existence of other cashew farmers in Ghana, the study was limited to cashew farmers in Bono Region.

Originality/value

Despite the plethora of benefits of WRS, it is surprising that its implementation in the cashew subsector is geographically limited to East Africa. Thus, this study is the first to provide empirical evidence on the perception of WRS implementation and further examine farmers' willingness to participate in WRS in Ghana.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-12-2023-0946.

Purpose

Brazil has the second-biggest transplant system in the world. The organ donation rates, however, are still low. To persuade the population towards the theme, media interventions are broadcast regularly. This article analyses how media intervention in the form of advertising campaigns, telenovelas, and news can raise the rates of organ donations in Brazil.

Design/methodology/approach

We obtained data from the Brazilian Association for Organ Transplantation (ABTO), the Brazilian Health Ministry (HM), the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE), Globoplay, and other media sources to build a panel with quarterly data from 2009 to 2019, by state. Then we used fixed-effect panel regression models with healthcare supply and demographics as control variables to ascertain the effect of the media variable on organ donations during this period.

Findings

The results indicate that media interventions can increase the number of effective organ donors by up to 1%. The coefficient of media interventions is significant and positive for telenovelas (95% C.I 0.156–0.164), and for news in the following quarter (95% C.I 0.108–0.232), not significant individually for contemporaneous news or government advertising campaigns.

Social implications

Telenovelas and news presentations are effective tools of awareness for organ donation. Empirically, media interventions in the form of telenovelas or news impact organ donation as much as improvements in the healthcare system and can diminish the mortality on the waiting list by 17%.

Originality/value

This is the first time that media coverage and organ donation campaigns are evaluated together using panel data analysis in Brazil.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-03-2023-0221