Studia Universitatis Vasile Goldiș Arad, Seria Științe Economice

Decomposing the Gender Wage Gap in the Urban Labor Market in Kenya

Wycliffe Obwori Alwago — 2024-10-03

Legislation and regulation have been effective in reducing the gender wage gap in developed countries; however, the gap still exists globally, and progress towards narrowing the gap has been unacceptably slow even in regions where it is improving. This study presents the analysis of gender wage gap in Kenya's urban labor market by using the World Bank Skills Towards Employability and Productivity Survey (WBSTEPS). This study employed Mincer earnings regressions with Heckman selection correction and the Blinder-Oaxaca and Neumark decomposition procedures to answer the research questions. The results of the wage determination and participation in the labor market show that there is no selectivity-bias problem. Personal characteristics such as education and age, as well as work-related characteristics, are important factors in determining earnings. The magnitude of the gender wage gap varies across the wage distribution, and the results of the wage decomposition reveal that women in urban Kenya earn 84.5-to-86% of men’s earnings. The earnings gap is overwhelmingly due to differences in returns to endowments, which account for between 70% and 94.7% of the total earnings gap. Admittedly, the study found evidence of discrimination against women in the returns to endowments, but also observed pronounced favoritism towards men. However, discrimination against women is more pronounced than favoritism towards men. Addressing the gender wage gap in Kenya requires a multifaceted approach that tackles both systemic biases against women and structural barriers that hinder women from accessing equal opportunities in education, training, and career advancement and government policies that minimize favoritism towards men.

How Organizational Inefficiency Adversely Affects Number-of-employee Based Production Outputs

Jeffrey Yi-Lin Forrest — 2024-10-03

This study uses an analytical approach to investigate the emerging disconnect between firm size and financial performance, as observed recently from a set of long-term data collected from U.S. public firms. By holding all organizational aspects of a firm constant, it confirms the validity of the old saying that the larger a firm is, the better chance it can secure advantages against rivals and the higher returns it can fetch. However, if the assumption about organizational aspects is removed, the present study shows that if a firm employs its assets to increase production output through hiring additional employees, then the consequently increased organizational inefficiency, as caused by interactions of the employees, will soon erase the expected increase in the output. Additionally, it is also shown, among other results, that when a firm hires additional human labor to meet the increasing market demand, the expected profit will decline after first reaching its maximum level. These results crystalize what has been speculated and what have been empirically observed. In the conclusion section, it is recommended that increasing a firm’s size, in terms of the number of employees, is not a realistic, efficient solution to meeting the challenge of increasing market demand. Instead, any genuine solution must satisfy the condition that it does not increase the organization’s inefficiency of the firm, such as increasing the magnitude of automation and/or digitization.

Analysis of the Relationship Between Military Expenditure and Investment in the Economic Community of West African States: a Heterogeneous Panel Data Approach

Obukohwo Oba Efayena — 2024-10-03

West Africa has been grappling with various security challenges prompting governments’ intervention via military expenditure both at the country and regional level. Given the sporadic surge in military expenditure in the region and the potential effect such expenditure may exert on investment which is a sin qua non to the development process of any economy or region, this study utilizes the augmented mean group (AMG) approach and the Granger non-causality test in investigating the impact and causal relationship between investment and military expenditure in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) between 1980 and 2020. With country-specific cross-dependence and heterogeneity adequately accounted for, the study found that military expenditure has a dampening impact on investment at both the panel and country levels; unemployment adversely impacts investment; whereas economic growth stimulates investment (catalytic effect) in the ECOWAS, although at differing levels of significance. The study also established a long-run relationship among the variables; with only economic growth Granger causing investment. The study thus recommends that country-specific and regional-based military policies be established to glean economic growth through viable investment.

The Relationship Between the Shadow Economy, Corruption, and Taxes: Empirical Evidence From Countries With High and Low Financial Development

Tran Thi Kim Oanh — 2024-10-03

The paper explores the relationship between the shadow economy, corruption, and taxes in 25 high-financial developed countries (HFDCs) and 30 low-financial developed countries (LFDCs) using the PVAR method. The results of the impulse-response function show that the corruption perception index (CPI) has a positive correlation with tax revenue and the shadow economy in HFDCs, while tax revenue and the shadow economy are negatively correlated. In contrast, in LFDCs, the shadow economy has a positive correlation with tax revenue and a negative correlation with the CPI. In addition, the study also suggests that there is no relationship between tax revenue and the CPI. From the above findings, we propose several related policies for each group of countries.

Mediating Role of Sustainability Reporting Quality on the Relationship Between Green Banking and Firm Value

Aulia Fuad Rahman — 2024-10-03

The mounting environmental concerns have become a pressing issue across industries. Nevertheless, the banking sector has a distinct influence in shaping economic growth and development. This study sought to evaluate the impact of green banking in strengthening corporate value through its level of sustainability reporting in order to address these concerns. A research framework was developed based on theoretical support. The sampled data was collected from banks listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange from 2018-2021. An empirical analysis was performed through hierarchical regression. The study’s findings indicated that green banking positively and significantly impacts firm value. Furthermore, there is a mediating effect between green banking and business value due to the quality of sustainability reporting. The empirical test revealed that the quality of sustainability reporting has a mediating effect to some extent. The results also showed that there is an interaction between business size (assets) and correlations between firm value and green banking. By undertaking a data-driven research that explains the impact of green banking on business value, this study aims to fill a significant gap in the body of knowledge on green banking and sustainability reporting.