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This paper aims to assess the relationship between income and consumption expenditures of households in Romania between 1997 and 2022. The chosen econometric methods are the Augmented Dickey-Fuller and Phillip-Perron unit root tests, Granger causality tests and the Johansen-Juselius test. Our study highlights the fact that together with the increase in the monetary income, there was a considerable reduction in the income in kind that ensured the coverage of the consumption needs at the household level. Additionally, the increase in the population's monetary income is essential for reducing the share of expenses on the consumption of food products and increasing the consumption of non-food products and services.

In recent decades, the cross-border flow of waste has become increasingly active globally, with existing research primarily attributing this trend to the pollution haven hypothesis. This study re-examines the drivers of global waste trade and explores their implications for sustainability. Using panel data from 117 countries between 1996 and 2020, we find that both developed and developing economies import waste products as resources. However, the resource hunting motive declines and shifts toward higher-value waste when importers adopt recycling policies. When developed exporters implement such policies, importers increase trade value due to lower matching costs. The pollution haven motive drives some waste exports from developed to developing economies, but trade value declines when destination countries strengthen recycling policies. This study deepens understanding of global waste trade and provides empirical insights for policymaking to better balance resource utilization and environmental sustainability.

IPO listing review via comment letters is an important mechanism to improve the quality of listed firms, while its impact on corporate post-listing behaviors is not clear. Using China's Sci-Tech Innovation Board (STAR market) listed firms, this paper examines the impact of IPO listing review on corporate post-listing tax avoidance behavior. The empirical tests show that the increase of listing review intensity is significantly associated with lower corporate tax avoidance activities of firms after listing. Using textual analysis methods and mediating analysis, this study finds that the decrease effect of listing review on corporate tax avoidance activities is mainly associated with comment letter questions that monitor the characteristics of R&D activities and compliance with operations and information disclosure. The empirical findings support the "Bonding Hypothesis" about the IPO listing review. Further research shows that for non-state-owned firms, firms with low institutional investors shareholding, and firms listed through profitability-related listing criteria, their post-listing tax avoidance activities are more affected by the listing review intensity. Overall, the empirical findings of this study empirically support to the claim that the interactions between stock exchange and equity issuing firms via comment letters during the IPO process play a significant role in monitoring corporate posting-listing behavior. This study helps to reveal the actual effect and strong transmission between the exchange-led IPO listing review and corporate post-listing behaviors, and expands research findings on tax avoidance as well as the effectiveness of IPO comment letters.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, Romania and other Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries faced some of the highest inflation rates in the European Union, creating a pressing need for accurate short-term forecasts to guide monetary policy. This study compares modern machine learning (ML) methods - Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) neural networks, Random Forests (RF) and Support Vector Regression (SVR) - with traditional Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) models in forecasting Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices. Using quarterly data for Romania (2006Q1-2023Q4) and monthly data for nine CEE economies (2006M1-2025M3), we incorporate unemployment and sentiment indicators derived from the Romanian Central Bank reports and the European Commission's Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI). We further evaluate model performance through simulation experiments that include high persistence, moving-average non-invertibility, nonlinear regimes, and structural breaks. Across both empirical and LSTM and SVR models - they frequently deliver lower forecast errors than ARDL, with LSTM achieving up to 53% reductions in mean squared error relative to naïve benchmarks. However, ARDL remains competitive when sentiment indices are the main predictor. These findings highlight that while advanced ML models can capture nonlinear dynamics and regime changes, traditional econometric tools still provide valuable robustness, particularly in sentiment-driven contexts. Overall, integrating ML, econometric approaches, and sentiment analysis offers a more reliable toolkit for short-horizon inflation forecasting under economic uncertainty.

This study assesses the relationship between the ownership structure and corporate tax avoidance based on annual financial data of Chinese A-share listed firms during 2010-2020. Firstly, the empirical results demonstrate that when a listed firm has multiple large shareholders (MLS), these shareholders are likely to weaken internal monitoring and collude with each other, which will lower its corporate governance level and increase its corporate tax avoidance (CTA) level. The empirical conclusion remains valid after multiple robustness tests. Secondly, the empirical result of the baseline model is significantly influenced by the nature of ownership, the quality of external audit, the tracking of securities analysts and the firm's location. Finally, the result of our mediating effect analysis shows that the presence of MLS reduces the company investment efficiency, which provokes firms to make aggressive financial choices to obtain resources to ensure their future development.

The present study focuses on the analysis of systemic risk in the American and European financial systems for the period from 20 August 2004 to 28 February 2014. The global crisis in 2007 has brought attention to the urgent need to understand the systemic risk issues and the stability of financial systems along with their actors. To assess systemic risk, Adrian and Brunnermeier (2011) advocated the use of conditional value-at-risk (CoVaR) methodology in integrating quantile regression. Instead of the value-at-risk (VaR), which is unable to detect systemic risk, we seek to use the CoVaR methodology to calculate the systemic risk levels of the United States and European markets. In the light of related findings, we conclude that the insurance sector contributes most to the systemic risk in the USA, while in the Eurozone, it is the financial services sector that is highly interconnected with systemic risk.

The article presents an empirical analysis of the relation between recruitment in the all-volunteer Czech Armed Forces and selected economic indicators, including actual economic performance, situation on the domestic labour market and development of defence expenditures based on data for the period 2005-2019. The relation between military recruitment and economic performance was examined using values of GDP and GDP dynamics (GDP index). General unemployment rate, the economic activity index¹ and the military-to-general average wage ratio were used to analyse the relation of military recruitment and situation on the domestic labour market. The relation between military recruitment and defence expenditures was examined based on general defence burden (share of defence expenditures in GDP), state sector defence burden (share of defence expenditures in state budget expenditures) and year‑on‑year changes in defence expenditures.

This paper analyses uncertainty as one of the factors that affect the public debt-growth nexus. We put forward a hypothesis that uncertainty mediates the effect of public debt on economic growth. The empirical examination of the mediating effect is based on the neoclassical growth equation and consistent with specifications previously used to analyse the sources of heterogeneity in the debt-growth relationship. Since one part of the uncertainty is financial risk, which is closely related to the financial sector stability, we use interest rate spread as a main variable, and the risk premium on lending as an alternative one to proxy financial risk and thus, to some extent, uncertainty. Our results show that lower uncertainty is related to a bigger positive effect of debt on growth and a higher turning point in the debt-growth nexus. On the contrary, higher uncertainty leads to a lower positive and more considerable negative effect of debt on growth in both linear and quadratic specifications.

Annually the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) provides support to the farming sector amounting to more than EUR 50 billion in the EU, of which direct payments (DPs) take around 70%. DPs are often argued to be granted unfairly to large farms. In this paper we analyse implications and the political economy of DP capping in Slovakia in the context of the ongoing negations about the future CAP reform. The simulation results for Slovakia show that if the 2018 Commission proposal was approved it would lead to losses of EUR 190.1 million (68% of total DPs) to large farms when labour costs are not subtracted. These losses would decrease to only EUR 12.2 million (4.4% of total DPs) when the labour costs are subtracted. Further, the results show that potentially affected large farms in Slovakia show lower performance and lower compliance with the agricultural policy objectives than farms unaffected by the DP capping. Similar to the past CAP reforms, the position of Slovakia against DP capping is expected to be maintained also in future, which could be explained by three main factors: the productivity argument, the political economy argument linked to the lobby pressure from large farms and low economic distortions caused by DPs.

We estimate that the Unobserved Economy (UnEc) share in Portuguese GDP rose to a maximum of 34.37% in 2022. The results suggest that cutting the tax burden and improving the efficacity of social benefits could reduce UnEc and foster inclusive growth. The rising UnEc share MIMIC estimates found in our single-country study, with variables suited to Portugal, contrast with the downward trend (from 22.2% in 2003 to 16.5% in 2021) in the MIMIC multi-country study by Schneider (2021), who uses different variables - mostly reflecting the economic structure of advanced economies - and does not report if and how country heterogeneity is dealt with. Compared to other recent single-country estimates for the European Union periphery, Schneider (2021) also underreports the UnEc share of (at least) Greece, Poland and Lithuania. Thus, we recommend that authorities prefer UnEc single-country estimates in their analysis and policy design and be aware of mentioned issues in multi-country results.

This paper examines the effect of company size on transaction multiples. The existence of the size effect has been investigated by a number of authors who have primarily used data for publicly traded companies for their research. Our research works with data from private transactions with non-traded companies (shares) from the EU. The transaction price concluded in these deals is decomposed into the product of profit and transaction multiple as when using market comparison valuation methods. Transaction multiples are relative types of financial metrics that typically compare various levels of profit such as EBITDA, EBIT or EAT to a value that an investor is willing to pay to acquire a given company. The objective of this paper is to confirm the hypothesis that larger companies are purchased for higher profit multiples than smaller companies. Accordingly, in the context of DCF valuation methods, higher profit multiples correspond to a lower discount rate and vice versa. However, it should be noted that despite the large amount of research conducted, the existence of the size effect is still not confirmed or refuted at present.

The infrastructure investment could strongly influence the economic growth in the Western Balkans countries and contribute to improved regional cooperation and reconciliation and to faster integration into the EU. However, it is essential that public investments in infrastructure are properly financed and managed. To measure the impact of infrastructure indicators on economic growth, panel regression analysis was used for the period 2000-2021, in six Western Balkan countries. The paper addresses the important question of how to intensify investments in infrastructure to achieve sustainable growth in the Western Balkans. The obtained results confirm the earlier findings about the significant impact of energy, ITC, and road infrastructure on economic growth in the Western Balkans.

This paper presents the first systematic literature review of event study methodology applied to political events. Following PRISMA guidelines, 133 studies (1997-2024) were analysed to uncover methodological patterns. The findings show that nearly three-quarters of the papers rely on a single expected return model. The market model accounts for close to one-half of all identified model specifications, indicating its simplicity and practical applicability. Symmetric event windows, mainly shorter configurations like (-1, +1) are preferred; most of the studies test multiple lengths. Estimation periods vary (5-300 trading days), though many papers offer little validation for their choices. The review highlights methodological patterns and gaps: reliance on simple models, short symmetric windows, and inconsistent reporting. As a response, it proposes a best-practice framework to support transparency, comparability, and theoretical integration to advance methodology in this domain.

The main objective of this study is to determine the effects of economic and social inequalities on academic success and to test whether the cycle of inequality is active through education. This objective is accomplished using classical and Bayesian discrete choice models for the sample obtained from Türkiye. The results reveal that students' economic and social characteristics affect their academic success and that these characteristics are possible sources of inequality in education. According to the findings obtained from models employed in the study, income, private school education, parental education level, region of residence, neediness to work, and the level of happiness with the family were found to have statistically significant effects on student success in getting into the desired university department and university placement ranking. Additionally, the results are compatible with the studies that report that the Bayesian approach yields more stable and appropriate results with smaller standard errors and confidence intervals.

Measures of inequality typically rely on price indices formulated for a representative consumer, falsely assuming an identical consumption basket across households within the country. However, consumption patterns differ across households; hence, the changes in price levels might have different impacts on households at different points in the income distribution. To challenge this prevailing assumption and gain a more accurate comprehension of income inequality in Argentina from 2004 to 2018, I constructed income level-specific cost of living indices using the Argentinian Household Expenditure Survey. The results demonstrated that from 2004 to 2012, the poor experienced a higher increase in the cost of living compared to the richest group. Conversely, between 2012 and 2018, price changes displayed anti-rich behaviour. Considering the cost of living index differentials in the Gini coefficient calculations highlights that the price movements had an inegalitarian bias between 2004 and 2012, whereas the trend reversed in the 2012-2018 period.

This study examines the role of age in the selection and promotion of employees within public and private organizations, with a particular focus on Czech organizations. The research investigates the impact of age on career advancement across various industries and regions, aiming to provide insights into potential age-related biases in the workplace. The study utilizes a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative analysis of promotion rates with qualitative insights from organizational representatives. Despite the intriguing nature of the topic, the study faces several challenges, including a relatively low number of respondents and limited data availability. Nevertheless, the findings shed light on the complexities of age-related dynamics in the workplace, highlighting the need for further research and potential interventions to promote equity and fairness in career advancement processes.

Numerous studies have explored the possible causes of global carbon emissions and climate change; however, the impact of export diversification and concentration on these emissions is a less examined topic in literature. This study investigates the effects of export diversification and concentration on carbon emissions in Türkiye from 1995 to 2018, utilizing the nonlinear ARDL method. The findings indicate that export diversification reduces carbon emissions after accounting for the effects of other control variables, such as renewable energy, levels of inequality, and government size. In this model, an increase in renewable energy, inequality, and government size leads to higher carbon emissions and worsens environmental quality, although the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis is supported. Additionally, this study reveals that positive shocks in export concentration reduce carbon emissions, while negative shocks increase emissions. This hypothesis remains valid for the specified period in Türkiye, but the control variables display behavior similar to export diversification. The results suggest that mitigating climate change and improving environmental quality in Türkiye relies on policies that support export diversification and concentration.

The study estimates the size of the gender pay gap (GPG) for the Czech Republic in the years 2006-2017 using data from the EU-SILC survey. The size of the GPG (and the related variables) remains relatively time-invariant with a statistically weak relation to the business cycle. Using the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, we found out that the unexplained part of the GPG amounts to 50% of the whole GPG (on average) and only one third of the GPG is caused by an endowment effect or an interaction between the endowment effect and the coefficient effect. Selection bias plays a statistically insignificant role in terms of the GPG formation and explanation. Parenthood is the most important driver of the GPG. For parents, the GPG is about 30 percentage points higher than the one for non-parents. Women are able to narrow the GPG created by the effect of motherhood and reach original unexplained levels of approximately 15% after reaching the age of 50 and higher. Besides parenthood, there is no other demographic characteristic that has any substantial impact on the formation and persistence of the GPG. The GPG is most pronounced for the lowest- and the highest-earning quantiles, indicating the existence of a glass ceiling and a sticky floor on the Czech labour market.

The study examines housing affordability in Germany from 2017 to 2023 in light of rising real estate prices and challenges in the housing market. It uses the Housing Affordability Index to identify trends and patterns and propose policy measures to tackle the problems. The results show regional differences, with large cities in particular facing rising prices. Overall, the housing affordability burden has worsened across the country, with the western federal states being particularly affected. Future research should focus on evaluating policy measures and analyzing future trends in order to develop appropriate strategies and make predictions for the future.

This article explores the determinants of bank credit granted to very small, small, and medium-sized enterprises (VSMEs) in Morocco over the period 2014-2024. The study focuses on the combined effects of monetary policy signals, prudential regulation, and government credit guarantees on this segment's access to finance. Using a quantitative approach, the analysis is based on a dataset of 799 lending decisions from two large commercial banks, combined with macroeconomic indicators. The econometric model uses linear regression to estimate the effects of the central bank's policy rate, bank lending rates, risk-weighted assets (RWA), government guarantee volumes, and the economic cycle (before, during, and after COVID-19). The results show that the central bank's policy rate has a statistically significant effect; however, its influence remains limited compared to the strong negative impact of lending rates applied to VSMEs. This confirms the importance of interest rate pass-through and bank pricing behavior in access to credit. The post-COVID period is associated with a marked increase in credit allocation, likely supported by strengthened government guarantees and economic stimulus programs. The results suggest that monetary policy alone is not sufficient to unlock credit for VSMEs. The effectiveness of transmission depends on institutional factors, including risk perception, regulatory constraints, and risk-sharing tools.

Reducing income inequality is one of the goals under the Sustainable Development Goals. This study examines the intricate relationship between financial development, policy uncertainty, inflation, and income inequality. Panel data for African countries covering the period 2000-2022 were used in the analysis. The study used the economic policy uncertainty (EPU) index to examine its effects on income distribution. Previous studies indicated the possibility of asymmetric effects of inflation and EPU on income inequality. Hence, a dynamic non-linear Panel ARDL was employed to examine the asymmetric nature of the relationship between these variables. The study found that in the long run a symmetric EPU reduces income inequality for the countries in the study and this is confirmed by the asymmetric negative EPU that had a negative and significant impact on inequality. Income equality was found to deteriorate with an increase in inflation. Moreover, inequality was found to be more sensitive to negative changes in inflation relative to a positive change as inequality's elasticity to positive change was much lower as compared to negative changes. Under certain conditions and economic context, redistributive policies can alleviate inequality during a period of heightened EPU. By examining the theoretical frameworks and empirical evidence, the study highlights that for the countries in this study, policy uncertainty reduces inequality. Also, countries should continue with inflation targeting policies and if possible, aim for a lower rate relative to the previous period.

This paper investigates the nonlinear risk transmission from the oil and natural gas markets to the foreign exchange markets of five energy importers and one major energy exporter. We separate conditional volatility into the transitory (short-term) and permanent (long-term) parts, and then these volatilities are embedded in an elaborate robust linear quantile regression model. We find that the risk spillover effect is relatively low in Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) probably because they pursue a managed float exchange rate regime. On the other hand, this effect is higher for Turkey and Russia, which is especially true for the effect from oil to the rouble at the highest quantile. This happens because Russia receives the largest amount of foreign currency from oil exports. The results indicate that the short-term risk spillover effect is notably stronger than the long-term one, which means that the exchange rate volatility is mainly determined by market sentiment. The rolling regression results coincide very well with the estimated quantile parameters.

This study develops a multi-dimensional composite index to measure financial inclusion in Ethiopia, using a two-stage Principal Component Analysis based on ten traditional and five digital indicators from 2015 to 2023. The results reveal a significant increase in Ethiopia’s financial inclusion score, rising from an average of 10.89% in 2015 to 52.18% in 2023. Among the dimensions, traditional availability (0.2625) is the most influential, followed by traditional usage (0.2616), digital accessibility (0.2505), and digital availability (0.2254). Further analysis reveals that the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia alone contributes 48.99% for financial inclusion score, while five medium-sized and eleven small-sized private banks collectively account for 29.26% and 21.75%, respectively. The developed index proves to be a valuable tool for policymaking and evaluation, addressing previous limitations like arbitrary weight selection. It offers a detailed perspective on financial inclusion trends among commercial banks in Ethiopia, consistent with existing studies.

This paper investigates the drivers of foreign exchange implied volatility in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. Currencies in non-euro EU countries are particularly sensitive to changes in market sentiment. Risk aversion significantly impacts the implied volatility surface for FX options, making these options crucial for managing skew risk. By analysing option prices, this study identifies co-movements between spot rates, interest rates, and volatilities for specific option strategies. Empirical evidence reveals robust determinants of volatility levels, volatility smiles, and volatility term structures. Applying error correction models and the directional quality measure across a long time span (2010-2025), we find that spot rate movements and mean reversion play significant roles in shaping implied volatilities in CEE markets, with patterns distinct from those in developed markets. The data suggests that the spot price rise is positively correlated with the pricing of both straddles and risk reversals. Our findings provide new insights into the behaviour of FX volatility in semi-liquid markets and have practical implications for pricing, hedging, and policy signalling in the CEE region.

There are studies investigating a country's digital competitiveness; however, there is a lack of research examining digital competitiveness at the enterprise level. Hence, the current study aims at composing an enterprise digital competitiveness index (EDCI), which provides a possibility to assess the level of enterprise digital competitiveness and could be used by policymakers in the development of a strategy for transitioning to the digital economy. The CRITIC and COPRAS approaches are employed for the index construction. The criteria and subcriteria provided by Eurostat (2022) are used as antecedents of the EDCI. The results indicate that Nordic countries have reached the highest level of enterprise digital competitiveness. The mentioned countries' GDP per capita is in the top 5 among the EU countries, while the countries with the lowest GDP per capita show the lowest EDCI.

This study investigates the impact of terrorism on financial markets, focusing specifically on Turkey's sovereign Credit Default Swap (CDS) premiums from 2011 to 2017 - period characterized by frequent and diverse terrorist activities. Employing an EGARCH model with dummy variables for various terrorist groups, we analyze immediate and short-term market reactions across different event windows. Our findings reveal significant volatility in CDS premiums following terrorist incidents, with market responses varying depending on the terrorist group perpetrating the incident. This study enhances the understanding of capital market reactions on terrorist events through CDS instruments, highlighting their role in assessing sovereign credit and country risk.

This study investigates the nonlinear interplay between bank stability, financial inclusion, deposit insurance design, and banking concentration, utilizing unbalanced panel data from 122 countries between 2004 and 2021. By constructing novel indices-including a composite Moralhazard index to quantify deposit insurance-related risk incentives, a financial inclusion indicator, and a CONTAGION measure to capture the contagion effect of deposit insurance, we provide fresh empirical insights into the institutional synergies and trade-offs shaping banking system resilience. Our analysis reveals three key results: (1) Threshold effects exist in both deposit insurance coverage and financial inclusion levels that significantly influence bank stability; (2) The interaction between deposit insurance spread and financial inclusion may mitigate moral hazard incentives from deposit insurance systems at the micro level, it simultaneously amplifies cross-border contagion risks at the macro level; (3) Heterogeneous cross-country evidence reconciling how higher banking concentration elevates banks' risk.