Population Ageing and Price Level in Japan

This paper estimates the cointegration between population ageing and inflation in Japan using the augmented autoregressive distributed lag model. The method provides a complete indication of cointegration and avoids false conclusions from a unit root test. Moreover, the transmission channel from ageing to the price level is investigated using the pairwise Granger causality. Based on the annual data from 1961 to 2018, a cointegration relationship is found, and the deflationary effect of ageing in Japan is confirmed. Additionally, the young dependency ratio inflates the price level in Japan. Lastly, ageing influences the price level via its impact on the labour supply.

Business Credit, Household Credit and Economic Performance in Malaysia: A Quantile Regression Approach

This study examines the effects of business (enterprise) credit and household credit on economic performance in Malaysia. The World Bank’s Doing Business report ranked Malaysia at number one among developing countries in terms of ease of getting credit in the six consecutive years since 2008. The analysis is based on quantile regression estimations, using quarterly time series datasets from 1999: Q4 to 2019: Q4. The empirical findings reveal that business credit is positively associated with economic performance whereas household credit is an insignificant determinant of economic performance. We also consider the interaction between credit and institutional quality, an emerging key fundamental variable that determines economic performance. The results demonstrate that only the interaction term between business credit and institutions is statistically significant. In short, business credit outperforms household credit in promoting economic performance in Malaysia. The empirical findings are robust to alternative control variables and quantile regression estimation techniques.

Globalisation, Logistics and Food Supply: Evidence from Vietnam

Most countries satisfy domestic food consumption by importing from foreign supplies, thus highlighting the role of agricultural exports in maintaining and diversifying the global food supply. In the age of globalisation, whether the flourishing number of regional trade agreements (RTAs) has been facilitating greater market access of agricultural and food products is questioned by national governments. Meanwhile, logistics performance has been the bottleneck of emerging economies, which exerts negative impacts on agricultural export competitiveness in foreign markets. Overall, the interlink between globalisation, logistics and food supply has not been addressed adequately. Therefore, this paper employs the trade gravity model to examine the relationship between agricultural exports, RTAs membership, and logistics performance in the case of Vietnam and her 97 major trading partners. Static and dynamic panel data estimation are employed with the methods applied to solving the zero trade and endogeneity concerns. Findings confirm the interlink between globalisation, logistics and food supply. RTAs-based globalisation and logistics policies are intertwined to secure and diversify import-driven food supply. The unified framework for long-term and sustainable development which aims at strengthening the interlink between globalisation, logistics, agriculture and global food supply should be considered in policy formulation.

Economic Cycle and Bank Liquidity Hoarding: Are They Procyclical or Countercyclical?

The paper empirically examines bank liquidity hoarding fluctuations over the economic cycle and provides further evidence on the heterogeneous cyclicality of bank liquidity hoarding across different banks in Vietnam for the period 2007–2019. Using both static panel models with the fixed-effects regression using corrected Driscoll-Kraay standard errors and dynamic panel models with the two-step system generalized method of moments estimator, we find that the liquidity hoarding of banks is procyclical. Concretely bank liquidity hoarding on- and off-balance sheets tends to increase during economic upturns and decrease during economic downturns. Our additional analysis yields a consistent pattern that financially weaker banks are more procyclical than their stronger counterparts. During booms and busts, the behaviour of hoarding liquidity is more pronounced for banks with smaller sizes, less capital, more risk, and less profit. This heterogeneity also contributes to understanding the core mechanism behind our main findings, further confirming the precautionary motive of bank liquidity hoarding.

Foreign Experience of CEOs and Managerial Risk Taking

Our paper uses a multidimensional analysis to provide a better insight on the relationship between CEO foreign experience and corporate risk-taking. By decomposing the foreign experience of CEOs from developing economies such as Malaysia, we find that CEOs who have studied in OECD countries undertake higher levels of risk-taking and CEOs’ foreign working experience may have an adverse effect on risk-taking behaviour especially if the working experience is obtained from non-OECD countries. Additional analysis reveals that younger CEOs and family CEOs with foreign working experience matter in reinforcing the firms’ risk-taking activities. Overall, our findings provide implication for researchers and policymakers seeking to nurture risk-taking behaviours and innovativeness in emerging countries.

Perceived Financial Adequacy in Old Age: A Case Study in Indonesia

Studies on perceived financial adequacy (PFA) among older persons are mostly about developed countries. However, the ageing population is undergoing an even faster rate in developing countries. This paper fills this gap, by examining economic–social factors associated with PFA in Indonesia, a developing country. The analysis uses statistics derived from three nationwide surveys conducted in 2015, enriched with insights on retirement income and retirement age derived from two online surveys, conducted in 2016/2017 and 2018. The result shows consistency in the pattern of objective income and PFA. This paper also finds that intensity of working and flexibility in working are positively associated with PFA. Better health and better living environment are positively associated with PFA. Finally, social assistance is negatively related to PFA. It reveals that older persons may not have been able to maintain the standard of living they had before retirement. Workers (future retirees) may want much higher retirement income and work longer as working is still the only reliable source of financial support in old age. It therefore recommends that the retirement age is raised, health is improved, decent living environment is enhanced, and the government continues with social assistance programmes.

Shariah Compliance in Islamic Economics: A Bibliometric Analysis

This study aims to examine the literature related to shariah compliance in the Scopus database. Furthermore, classification and critical commentary were applied to find a new direction for developing studies on shariah compliance in Islamic economics. The bibliometric approach was used to analyse 233 articles, while a systematic literature review was used to classify issues from 82 articles on this paradigm. The results showed that the examined studies grew significantly and were influential in developing the shariah compliance paradigm. This was indicated by the author’s highest m-index of 0.666. However, this literature primarily concerns financial institutions and their relationship with the paradigm, followed by related literature in various industries, with extensive discussion on ethics and in the normative context. In this regard, shariah compliance issues can be classified into three topics, namely Islamic banks, non-bank financial institutions, and general firms. Shariah compliance was insufficiently used as an instrument to measure the product restructuring impact of an Islamic bank and a reflection of the compliance from the customer psychology perspective. In this context, it is necessary to transform the paradigm into “preventing exploitation” by introducing the customer exploitation index.

Competitiveness of Malaysian Fisheries Exports: A Constant Market Share Analysis

Malaysia, one of the global major fish producers, has highly traded fisheries products given its many water bodies. Nonetheless, it faces a serious fish trade deficit, implying that the Malaysian fisheries sector might lose its competitiveness in the global market. This paper adopts a modified constant market share (CMS) analysis, which incorporates a net-share approach index and geometric framework, to measure the export competitiveness of the Malaysian fisheries sector. The findings reveal that half of the fisheries products exhibit optimistic export competitiveness. Malaysia reflects the strongest competitiveness in exporting frozen fish and the least competitiveness in the export of crustaceans. Additional effort and attention on those less competitive groups of aquatic invertebrates, live fish and crustaceans are required to improve the export performance. Application of the modified approach is highly proposed as it is not only a simple measurement that gives relatively more accurate results but also succeeds to overcome inconsistency in the traditional approach. The findings provide evidence of unrealised fish export potential regarding product categories, which helps policymakers, traders and marketers to develop their long-term strategic plans and enhance the export competitiveness of the fisheries sector in Malaysia.

An Analysis of the Informational Value of Sovereign Credit Ratings

The sovereign credit ratings (SCRs) have been an integral part in the global financial system in asset allocation and price discovery. The zero bound policy rate (ZBPR) and quantitative easing programme (QEP) rolled out by the four key central banks as antidotes to the global financial crisis (GFC) would have altered the assumed premise on SCRs relevancy. This preliminary study is crafted for a validation on whether the SCRs informational value on sovereign bond yields (SBYs) and sovereign credit default swap spreads (SCDSSs) was indeed affected when ZBPR and QEP were in effect. A sample of 32 countries with observations spanning from 2008 to 2017 to encompass the period of ZBPR and QEP in effect was used for analysis. The empirical results show that SCRs informational value was indeed rendered irrelevant on SBYs price discovery since 2008 and the effect on SCDSSs came in later from 2012 onwards.

Technology Transfer, Technological Capability, Absorptive Capacity and Firm Performance: An Investigation of the Textile and Clothing Firms in Pakistan

Research on the web of technological linkages that stimulate firm performance is still evolving, especially when they differ with industry, timing and location. Generally, firms in emerging nations need technologies to build technological capabilities; however in some cases firms are limited in their capacity to acquire the technology because of their low level of absorptive capability. The rising share of resource-based textile exports, which exceeds clothing exports, demonstrate that little or no functional upgrading has taken place in the clothing and textile industry of Pakistan. Hence, using structural equation modeling we examine in this paper the mediating effect of absorptive capacity on the relationship between technological capabilities and technology transfer, and firm performance in a sample of 503 textile and clothing firms in Pakistan. The results show that, absorptive capacity mediates positively and significantly the relation between technology transfer, technological capabilities and firm performance with the former being stronger than the latter.