Stevan Luković
The retirement savings process for the members of a pension fund involves regular contribution payments made by a member and/or his employer, and the investment earnings generated by following an investment strategy. After the Global Financial Crisis, the aspect of value preservation has become particularly important to members of a pension fund, thus affecting the selection of an investment strategy. In face of increasing fluctuations on the financial market, static lifecycle strategies have become an unsatisfactory solution for members of a pension fund given the absence of a response to shocks on the financial market. In the paper, a comparative analysis of the performance of dynamic and static lifecycle strategies is carried out using bootstrap resampling in order to simulate investment returns and VaR indicators so as to assess the risk of an adverse financial outcome at retirement. The results of the analysis indicate the fact that dynamic lifecycle strategies generate more favorable financial results than static lifecycle strategies do, with a slightly increased likelihood of generating extremely unfavorable outcomes.
Edesiri Godsday Okoro1 and Confidence Joel Ihenyen2
Regardless of the viewpoints of prior studies on earnings management, no study has been carried out on whether earnings management exerts pressure on firms’ return on assets and equity, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa in a single study. Drawing inferences from the existing earnings management models, a dissimilar model of earnings management, unlike those used in prior studies, which may match the peculiarity of Sub-Saharan Africa is developed in this paper. The data used were obtained from the Stock Exchange database of Sub-Saharan African countries by employing the fixed and random effects statistical technique. Using the proposed earnings management model, the study finds the intriguing results that may contribute to knowledge and magnify the literature that, notwithstanding the fact that earnings management exerts significant pressure on firms’ performances, it is even more so deemed as high in South Africa, only to be followed by West Africa, and low in East Africa. Interestingly, the study finds that the size of a firm plays a vital role in moderating the nexus between the earnings management and performances of Sub-Saharan African firms.
Cheng-Wen Lee1 and Andrian Dolfriandra Huruta2,3
In this paper, the effects of Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) and exports on economic growth in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Plus Three countries are explored. The panel data of a total of 13 countries pertaining to the period from 2008 to 2018 were analyzed. Based on the result of the Lagrange Multiplier (LM) test, the data fit to the random effect model. In a similar fashion, the Wald test suggests that there is no endogeneity problem in the given model. Furthermore, the results of the Hausman and Chow test also indicate that the random effect model is the most effective model to describe the effects of FDIs and exports on economic growth. The results prove that FDIs positively impact economic growth. In addition, exports also have a positive and meaningful effect on economic growth. Overall, the paper empirically confirms FDI-led growth and export-led growth. To conclude, the findings indicate the fact that FDIs and exports are crucial for boosting the economic growth of the ASEAN+3 countries. The ASEAN+3 region remains quite an attractive destination for international companies around the world when FDIs and trade are concerned.
Edvard Jakopin
Structural changes in the economy directly affect macroeconomic and financial stability, income growth, productivity and economic efficiency, social inclusion, and the improved quality of life. The global contraction in 2020, caused by COVID-19, the deepest since the Second World War, will cause a great global economic reset, extreme poverty will increase, and the biggest permanent loss will be in human capital. The biggest consequences for the Serbian economy will be a slowdown in structural reforms. The key performance of the economy in the conjunctural period was positive and affected the growth of the resilience of the economic system, but the research showed that the implemented structural reforms were insufficient and slow, that the old problems are still the causes of low competitiveness. In the context of new reform challenges, the focus of activities needs to be shifted towards creating a stimulating environment for the development of domestic entrepreneurship and the growth of private investment in order to increase trust in the entrepreneurship-institution relationship.
Biljana Bogićević Milikić
Intensive changes in the business environment with significant implications for organizations reflected in increasing their size, thinning structures, the application of new models in the intra- and inter-organizational designs, the growing importance of knowledge management and the application of multi-strategies have produced significant effects on the human resource management (HRM) architecture. As there are a number of different approaches to the HRM architecture in the relevant literature, this paper is aimed at creating an integral conceptual framework for designing this function. For this purpose, the paper analyzes different approaches to HRM design from the standpoint of the main theoretical models of organizational design in order to identify both similarities and distinctions between them, and build up an integral conceptual framework for designing the HRM architecture. These will form the ground for the application of a comprehensive approach in creating, analyzing and understanding the HRM architecture. The research findings suggest that the HRM modern architecture includes six design elements, namely: HRM contingent factors, key stakeholders’ interests, the HRM hard components, the HRM soft components, organizational results, and feedback.
Fatai Abiodun Atanda1 and Florence Olubunmi Osemene2
This study examines the key determinants of the competitiveness of firms in Nigeria. It draws the firm-level (i.e. firm-specific characteristics) data and macro-data (environmental factors) from the annual reports and accounts of non-financial listed firms and the Statistical Bulletin of the Central Bank of Nigeria, respectively. In addition, it employs descriptive, inferential and econometric tools to analyze the data. The results reveal that the age of a firm, its productive assets, profitability and the capital expenditure ratio of the government enhanced the competitiveness of high-competition firms, on the one hand, while the high cost of finance hindered it, on the other. However, profitability, business risk, the size of a firm and inflation contributed to the competitiveness of low-competition firms, on the one hand, while sales growth and employees’ capacity reduced it, on the other. It was concluded that both firm-specific and environmental factors played the beneficial and detrimental roles when the level of the competitiveness achieved by the Nigerian non-financial listed firms is concerned. Thus, the policy implications of these results were discussed.
Vladimir Mihajlović
This study investigates the validity of the New Keynesian Phillips curve in the Republic of Serbia. By means of empirical analysis, the impact of domestic inflation drivers, i.e. inflation expectations, real marginal costs and the output gap, is quantified. The results reveal that inflation in Serbia responds more intensively to negative rather than positive supply and demand shocks as it decreases more significantly in economic contraction than in expansion. The estimated model of the New Keynesian Phillips curve with marginal costs gives the unambiguous evidence that the growth of cost-push inflation could be reduced by a productivity-enhancing policy. Expected inflation significantly impacts the actual inflation rate, albeit inflation dynamics are dominated by inertia, i.e. past rates affect the current. The empirical estimate of the New Keynesian Phillips curve model with the output gap that indicates monetary expansion in the Republic of Serbia might, inter alia, stimulate the economic activity without causing significant inflationary pressures to occur.
Edirin Jeroh
This paper comparatively analyzes the internal determinants of environmental disclosure practices among firms in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). To achieve this, secondary data on the characteristics of the measures of the board and the characteristics of the audit committee were obtained from a sample of 60 companies from across the region (20 each from Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa). The regression technique was used to analyze the data and the results revealed the fact that, while the characteristics of the measures of the board and the audit committee were found to be the significant determinants of the environmental disclosure of firms in Kenya and Nigeria, the same cannot be said of firms in South Africa. The study, therefore, recommends that borrowing from South Africa, environmental management practices should be institutionalized in the entire region. Additionally, standard-setters should make practical efforts by developing new reporting standards which will guide and encourage a full disclosure of environmental concerns by firms.
Wasiu Abiodun Sanyaolu1, Trimisiu Tunji Siyanbola2 and Hafeez Babatunde Makinde3
Credit risk is one of the biggest challenges banks in Nigeria are faced with. By implication, it is also the one with dire consequences for their operation and survival, given the fact that a series of banks’ failures have significantly been brought into connection with nonperforming loans. Thus, this study examined the bank-specific and macroeconomic determinants of the nonperforming loans of the listed Deposit Money Banks (DMBs). Regression analysis involving fixed effect was adopted in order to analyze the panel data of the 10 selected deposit money banks in the period from 2008 to 2017. The findings show that the capital adequacy ratio, the size and the loans-to-total-assets ratio negatively and significantly affect nonperforming loans, whereas profitability and age were found to significantly but positively influence nonperforming loans of the Nigerian deposit money banks. More so, the liquidity ratio negatively, but insignificantly, affects nonperforming loans. However, not a single macroeconomic variable exerts a significant effect on nonperforming loans. The study recommends that banks should always deploy strategies for credit risk management by taking cognizance of the bank-specific and economic determinants of the nonperforming loans.
Olgica Glavaški and Emilija Beker Pucar
In the aftermath of the global recession, the need for fiscal consolidation in order to reduce budget deficits and the public debt has intensified, but with the aim to make the measures applied not affect the further slowdown of the economic activity in the European Union (EU) economies. In this paper, the episodes of the fiscal consolidation in the period from 1990 to 2015 in the 28 EU economies are analyzed, differentiating the multiyear episodes against the one-year (i.e. cold shower) episodes and their effects before and after the global recession. The episodes of the fiscal consolidation that result in successful (a reduction in the cyclically-adjusted primary budget deficit) and expansionary effects (the GDP growth) are identified, thus empirically confirming the existence of non-Keynesian effects. The stated affirms the idea that the achievement of fiscal sustainability by using austerity measures does not necessarily imply contractions in economies and that the development of a fiscal architecture in the EU by establishing complementarity between the national and supranational fiscal rules is of extraordinary importance in the post-crisis period.