Giovanni B. Pittaluga, Elena Seghezza, Pierluigi Morelli
{"title":"The myth of federal reserve de facto independence","authors":"Giovanni B. Pittaluga, Elena Seghezza, Pierluigi Morelli","doi":"10.1111/ecpo.12304","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ecpo.12304","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In the literature on central banks independence these institutions are considered as being apolitical. In reality, central banks are political actors and their de facto independence changes over time even if their de jure independence remains unvaried. An example of this is the Federal Reserve Bank (Fed), whose de facto independence in the past decades has fluctuated significantly because of the pressures of Congress and the President. To counter these pressures, the Fed seeks support from certain interest groups. The success of this behavior is more likely when the President and Congress represent different political parties.</p>","PeriodicalId":47220,"journal":{"name":"Economics & Politics","volume":"36 3","pages":"1675-1702"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141588131","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Corporate governance and firm performance: Evidence from political instability, political ideology, and corporate governance reforms in Pakistan","authors":"Irfan Haider Shakri, Jaime Yong, Erwei Xiang","doi":"10.1111/ecpo.12303","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ecpo.12303","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We examine impact of corporate governance on firm performance following the implementation of the changes to the Code of Corporate Governance of Pakistan in 2012. Our sample period from 2008 to 2022 include periods of political instability and shifts in Pakistan's political landscape, providing an opportunity to examine the effectiveness of corporate governance mechanisms in enhancing accounting- and market-based firm performance measures. We find significant improvements attributed to reforms in the regulatory framework surrounding corporate governance practices particularly from expanded scope and composition of boards and audit committees. This led to broader capabilities and effective controls, thus improving firm performance and investor confidence more so during periods of political instability and changes in political ideology.</p>","PeriodicalId":47220,"journal":{"name":"Economics & Politics","volume":"36 3","pages":"1633-1663"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ecpo.12303","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141523258","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Caring for minorities: The Flexible Decision Rule","authors":"Bruno S. Frey, Andre Briviba","doi":"10.1111/ecpo.12305","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ecpo.12305","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Simple majority rule disregards the interests of the losing minority; their vote does not affect the outcome. When vote outcomes are narrow, close to 50% of voters, the concerns of a significant part of the voters are disregarded. This increases polarization in the population and endangers democracy. This paper proposes a new procedure for political decisions by referendums. The <i>Flexible Decision Rule</i> formally takes into account the percentage of voters accepting or rejecting a proposal. The higher the share y of voters accepting it, the more strongly the proposal is to be put into reality; the lower <i>y</i> is, the less strongly the proposal is to be put into reality. This procedure explicitly considers the concerns of both the supporters and the opponents thus raising the fairness of the vote procedure. In contrast to majority voting, each vote marginalizes the outcome and therefore raises the incentive to participate in the vote increase.</p>","PeriodicalId":47220,"journal":{"name":"Economics & Politics","volume":"36 3","pages":"1664-1674"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ecpo.12305","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141505325","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Supply chain finance and firm strategic change: A firm life cycle perspective","authors":"Chen Ma, Qian Liu, Ruiqing Cao, Zixuan Dai, Fei Guo","doi":"10.1111/ecpo.12302","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ecpo.12302","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Using a proprietary data set from the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges, we examine the relationship between Supply Chain Finance (SCF) and strategic change in core firms. Our analysis reveals that SCF facilitates strategic change in growing firms but hinders it in declining firms, with no significant effect on mature firms. In growing firms, SCF enhances risk-taking capacity and reduces equity costs, while in declining firms, it stabilizes supply chains and increases customer concentration. In mature firms, SCF leads to strategic inertia. Economic tests suggest SCF aids firms in establishing unique competitive advantages at various stages of their life cycles.</p>","PeriodicalId":47220,"journal":{"name":"Economics & Politics","volume":"36 3","pages":"1604-1632"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141505326","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The catalyzing role of financial inclusion in decoding environmental challenges and fostering a sustainable future in BRICS-T","authors":"Bilgehan Tekin","doi":"10.1111/ecpo.12301","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ecpo.12301","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Environmental degradation poses a significant challenge globally, exhibiting diverse manifestations across regions and ecosystems. This study aims to decipher the factors contributing to environmental degradation, with a specific focus on Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and Türkiye countries, spanning the period of 1990–2018. This investigation revealed intricate interdependencies among financial institutions, market dynamics, energy utilization, demographic shifts, and ecological impacts. According to the findings of studies based on Durbin-Hausman, Westerlund, CS-ARDL cointegration, Juodis, Karavias, and Sarafidis and Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality tests, policies that encourage financial inclusion and energy efficiency should be developed to prevent environmental degradation. On the other hand, attention has been given to the impact of population growth on environmental policy decisions. This research contributes valuable information to the ongoing discourse on the interrelationship between financial inclusion, the energy population, and environmental protection.</p>","PeriodicalId":47220,"journal":{"name":"Economics & Politics","volume":"36 3","pages":"1572-1603"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142430201","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Economic voting behavior: The peak-end growth rule","authors":"Zekai Shen, Yiyang Jin, Yuanyuan Dong, Yazhou Liu","doi":"10.1111/ecpo.12299","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ecpo.12299","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper introduces the peak-end rule to economic voting, finding that voters focus on peak and end economic growth when evaluating incumbents. Cross-national data from 595 elections in 70 countries (1960–2020) shows that the average of the highest GDP growth rate during the term and the growth rate in the election year positively impacts incumbent vote share, with peak growth having a stronger effect. Instrumental variable analysis addresses endogeneity. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that less-educated voters rely more on the peak-end rule. The findings contribute to understanding voters' behavioral patterns and improving democratic accountability.</p>","PeriodicalId":47220,"journal":{"name":"Economics & Politics","volume":"36 3","pages":"1537-1571"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141505327","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Drivers of international fiscal spillovers","authors":"Hakan Yilmazkuday","doi":"10.1111/ecpo.12300","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ecpo.12300","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper investigates the drivers of international fiscal spillovers across 62 countries for the period covering 1970–2021. Using the local projections method at the country-pair level, fiscal spillovers are estimated as the cumulative response of the real gross domestic product (GDP) growth in spillover destination countries to a unit shock in the real government spending growth in spillover source countries. Pairwise estimation results (for 3782 country pairs) suggest that there are statistically significant fiscal spillovers for 36% of country pairs, whereas this ratio is 49% for country pairs within the euro area. For the median country pair, a unit shock of real government spending growth in the spillover source country results in about 0.09% of the increase in the real GDP growth of the spillover destination country, whereas this fiscal-spillover estimate goes up to 0.42% when the spillover source is in the euro area, and the spillover destination is an oil producing country. A secondary investigation based on the Heckman selection model is used to identify the drivers of fiscal spillovers across country pairs, where the existence of statistically significant fiscal spillovers is shown to be connected to the proximity between countries. The size of fiscal spillovers is further shown to increase with the initial (as of 1970) country size, trade openness, and government size of the spillover source country, whereas it decreases with the initial country size and trade openness of the spillover destination country. Important policy suggestions follow.</p>","PeriodicalId":47220,"journal":{"name":"Economics & Politics","volume":"36 3","pages":"1491-1536"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142430067","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Unraveling the impact of economic policy uncertainty on environmental efficiency: How do institutional quality and political orientation matter?","authors":"Cristian Barra, Pasquale Marcello Falcone","doi":"10.1111/ecpo.12297","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ecpo.12297","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Economic policy uncertainty significantly influences governmental decisions regarding environmental sustainability, particularly in CO<sub>2</sub> emissions reduction efforts. This study examines the impact of economic policy uncertainty on environmental inefficiency across 136 emergent and non-emerging countries from 1990 to 2018, using an unbalanced and heterogeneous sample. Additionally, we explore the moderating effects of institutional quality and political orientation on this relationship. Employing a directional distance function in a parametric context, our analysis reveals that economic policy uncertainty exacerbates environmental inefficiency. However, we find that institutional quality and political orientation act as important moderating factors, fostering greater environmental sustainability. Sensitivity analyses support these empirical findings, providing insights into potential implications for economic policy and guiding regulatory and policymaking efforts toward achieving enhanced environmental sustainability.</p>","PeriodicalId":47220,"journal":{"name":"Economics & Politics","volume":"36 3","pages":"1450-1490"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141387114","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Evolution of Chinese futures markets from a high frequency perspective","authors":"Zhengqiang Li, Tao Wang, Samuel Drapeau, Xuan Tao","doi":"10.1111/ecpo.12296","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ecpo.12296","url":null,"abstract":"<p>High-frequency trading (HFT) and algorithmic trading (AT) have attracted considerable attention from the academic and regulatory communities, often highlighted for their contributions to enhancing market liquidity. However, the distinctive market framework in China may alter the operational dynamics of intraday trading, indicating that traditional HFT/AT paradigms might not fully apply. This study investigates the evolution of market quality in China from an HFT/AT perspective, using publicly available high-frequency data for six futures products traded on the Shanghai Futures Exchange and the Dalian Commodity Exchange. Our findings reveals improvements in contract continuity and liquidity diversification from a daily perspective. Furthermore, the intraday analysis—especially following the increased availability of more granular data to market participants—suggests the emergence of more sophisticated algorithmic traders who enhance liquidity provision and contribute to reduced slippage costs for investors and hedgers.</p>","PeriodicalId":47220,"journal":{"name":"Economics & Politics","volume":"36 3","pages":"1416-1449"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141099208","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Government popularity in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic","authors":"Vítor Castro, Rodrigo Martins","doi":"10.1111/ecpo.12292","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ecpo.12292","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study analyses how government popularity was shaped in the UK during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Using daily data for the Conservative party popularity rate, we find that their popularity was strongly dominated by factors related to the pandemic, more so by the political cases linked to its management and the measures that the government undertook than by the direct health impact of the coronavirus. The government stringency measures became more harmful for government popularity over time, especially when the pandemic metrics calmed down. The economy played a very marginal role in shaping government popularity during that period.</p>","PeriodicalId":47220,"journal":{"name":"Economics & Politics","volume":"36 3","pages":"1382-1415"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ecpo.12292","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140979921","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}