Effects of Physical Exercise on Prosocial Behavior of Junior High School Students

Objective: This study aims to investigate whether physical activity can promote students’ prosocial behavior by analyzing the relationship between sports participation and the prosocial behavior of junior high school students. Methods: Based on the 2014–2015 China education panel survey (CEPS), the relationship between regular athletic sports and prosocial behavior was evaluated among eighth-grade students by ordinary least squares (OLS) estimation and propensity score matching (PSM) and the relationship between OLS and PSM was evaluated by Rosenbaum’s bounds test for a robustness test; the observations were analyzed for heterogeneity to identify those who benefit more from sports. Results: The OLS results showed that sporting behavior increased prosocial behavior scores by 4%, and the PSM results showed that regular physical exercise increased students’ prosocial behavior tendencies by over 0.2 standard deviations from the mean prosocial behavior score (standardized). According to the Rosenbaum’s bounds test, the estimates were robust and reliable, and the results of the heterogeneity analysis showed that with males and students whose fathers had more than 9 years of education, the students showed more significant improvements in prosocial behavior. Conclusion: Physical activity has a significant positive effect on students’ prosocial behavior, and gender and the father’s education are significantly related to prosocial behavior.

The Effects of Cross-Border E-Commerce On International Trade and Economic Growth: A Case of China

With the financial crisis in 2008 and its negative consequence on traditional foreign trade and economic growth, China has adopted cross-border e-commerce as a new international business model. The purpose was to enhance international trade and sustain economic growth. However, despite the remarkable increase of cross-border e-commerce, China’s traditional international trade and economic growth have continued to grow slowly. This paper used the ARDL bounds test over the period 2005-2020 to examine the effect of China’s cross-border e-commerce on international trade and economic growth. The findings from our research indicate that in both the short-run and long-run, cross-border e-commerce has positively impacted international trade and economic growth in China. Therefore, in order to promote trade and economic growth, the government should continue to support the development of cross-border e-commerce.

Does the monetary policy have any short-run and long-run effect on economic growth? A developing and a developed country perspective

PurposeThe study aims to empirically examine the relationship between monetary policy and economic growth, as well as to explore the long-run and the short-run effect of monetary policy on the economic growth of a developing country (Bangladesh) and a developed country (the United Kingdom).Design/methodology/approachDepending on data availability, the study employed secondary data covering the period of 1980–2019. The augmented Dickey–Fuller test and the Phillips–Perron test were used for the stationarity test. Further, the F-bounds test was run to justify the long-run relationship between monetary policy and economic growth. Thereafter, long-run coefficients were revealed from the auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL) model and short-run coefficients from the error correction model. Furthermore, the vector error correction model (VECM) Granger causality approach was employed to demonstrate the causality of studied variables. Lastly, different diagnostics tests ensured the robustness of the models.FindingsF-bounds test outcomes suggest that monetary policy has a long-run relationship with economic growth in both countries. Long-run coefficients revealed that money supply has a positive long-run impact on economic growth in both countries. Unlike the UK, the exchange rate exhibits an adverse effect on the economic growth of Bangladesh. The bank rate seems to promote economic growth for the UK. Findings also depict that increase in lending interest rates hurts the economic growth for both countries. Besides, the short-run coefficients portray random effects at different lags in both cases. Lastly, causality among studied variables is revealed using the VECM Granger causality approach.Originality/valueThe novelty of this study lies in consideration of both developing and developed countries in the same study.

Foreign Direct Investment Led Growth Hypothesis and Economic Development in Nigeria

This study was an inquiry into the nexus of the foreign-direct investment (FDI) led growth hypothesis, and how it translates into the development of the Nigerian economy as of 1970 – 2018. The study utilized secondary data from the ‘World Development Indicators’ which were analysed using the Bounds test for cointegration and the ‘autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach to divulge both the short-term cum the long-term influence of foreign direct investment net inflow on ‘economic development’ of Nigeria. The Bounds test was conducted after the unit root test revealed that the variables were stationary at mixed order of level and first difference. The outcome of the ARDL Bounds test supported confirmation of long-term association among the variables. The ARDL short-run error correction showed that 14.62% of the instability in the model was corrected yearly. In the short-term, it was discovered that FDI wielded a deleterious and substantial weight on ‘economic development of Nigeria. Meanwhile, the long-term estimates indicated that FDI influenced economic development positively, though not in a significant manner. The Granger causality test supported the fact that FDI causes ‘economic development’ in Nigeria. Given this potential of FDI exerting a positive effect on ‘economic development’, the paper recommended that bottlenecks inherent in FDI influxes in the country should be removed so as to reap the fullest benefits of such inflows in Nigeria.

Modelling Macroeconomic and Bank-Specific Determinants of Credit Risk in the Nigerian Banking Sector: Evidence from Bounds Test Approach to Co-Integration

Credit risk, represented in this study by the ratio of non-performing loans to total loan (NPL), is considered as one of the critical factors that causes bank distress and failure. This study examines the macroeconomic and bankspecific determinants of credit risk in the Nigerian Banking sector from the period 1998Q1 to 2018Q4 using the bounds test approach to co-integration. Literature survey in this subject area using Google Scholar resources reveals that there seems to be a consensus of findings in terms of the negative relationship between credit risk and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate, while other macroeconomic and bank-specific factors tend to have a random pattern relationship with credit risk attributable to various countries’ economic peculiarities. This study shows that GDP growth rate, return on asset, return on equity, interest rate, unemployment rate, and real exchange rate have a negative relationship with NPL. On the other hand, inflation rate, loan deposit ratio, and ratio of bank capital to asset have positive relationship with NPL. The relationships between the three variables and NPL were found to be individually insignificant to explain credit risk trends in the long run. Moreover, the Wald short-run causality test reveals that the macroeconomic and bank specific indicators jointly influence credit risk in the Nigeria banking sector in the short run. This study, however, recommends that since the macroeconomic and bank specific factors were found to be individually insignificant to explain credit risk trend in the long run, consideration should be accorded to some psychological, political, and socioeconomic factors such as the borrower’s attitude, business climate, social dislocations and distortions, availability of good infrastructural facilities, and the direction of government policies. These factors can affect borrowers’ ability to honor their debt obligations and, thus, determine the level of credit risk in the Nigerian economy.