Can financial education improve consumer welfare in investment markets? Evidence from China

Under the current complex economic situation and the impact of COVID-19, China's capital market reform has entered a critical period, with opportunities and challenges coexisting. One of the important challenges is how to improve the well-being of investors in capital markets. Financial education, which has been offered by financial institutions in many countries in recent years, is likely to become an effective policy instrument to meet this challenge. Using survey data of individual investors from China, this study examines the potential impact of financial education programs offered by financial institutions on individuals' investment diversification. The results show financial education is positively associated with the investment diversification of individual investors. An analysis of the underlying mechanism shows that financial education contributes to the improvement of investment diversification by mitigating limited attention bias, strengthening social trust, and promoting the use of professional investment advisors. These findings suggest that the persistent promotion of financial education programs has a positive effect on optimizing financial asset allocation decisions and improving financial welfare of Chinese households. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Water Management Priorities in a Post-COVID World

This paper maintains that the growing crisis of water scarcity cannot be addressed from within the paradigm that created the problem. The extractive paradigm which prevails views high economic growth as the main goal of development to be achieved through the increasing extraction of natural resources. Approaches to water management that are based on this paradigm view water as a resource primarily meant for human consumption. In contrast, the paper proposes an ecosystem paradigm in which water is viewed as being embedded within the ecosystem as an essential part of it to be conserved and preserved for future generations. The author identifies five areas of action for water management in the post-COVID context: move away from water-intensive agriculture through crop diversification;sustainable and community-based groundwater management;protection of river systems and wetlands;ensuring water quality and drinking water security and the creation of strong legal frameworks for water governance. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023.

Dynamic Dependency between the Shariah and Traditional Stock Markets: Diversification Opportunities during the COVID-19 and Global Financial Crisis (GFC) Periods

The aim of the present research is to highlight whether there exist any diversification opportunities from investing in developed and developing countries' Shariah-compliant and non-Shariah-compliant stock markets during global financial crisis (GFC) and the COVID-19 pandemic periods. For this purpose, we employ daily data for both Shariah and non-Shariah indices from 29 October 2007 to 31 December 2021. The study uses multivariate GARCH-DCC and wavelet approaches to examine if there exist diversification opportunities in the selected markets. Evidence from this study shows that although the developing markets' stock returns experience high volatility of a similar degree, the conventional indices of Malaysia have the highest volatility among them. This shows that Shariah indices have less exposure to risk and higher possibilities of diversification compared to their conventional counterparts. Regarding developed markets, the Japanese conventional index and the U.S. Shariah indices are more volatile compared to other indices in the market. Moreover, the results of the wavelet power spectrum show significant and higher volatility during the COVID-19 pandemic rather than the GFC. Similarly, the Chinese conventional market experienced minimum variance during the GFC and COVID-19 pandemic period. On the other hand, the results of wavelet-coherence transform indicate that the Japanese Shariah-based market offered better portfolio opportunities for U.S. traders during the GFC and the COVID-19 pandemic periods. Hence, opportunities for investment in this selected market are basically close to zero. Therefore, investors should carefully choose which stocks they can include in their investment portfolio. © 2023 by the authors.

Tail-event driven NETwork dependence in emerging markets

This paper employs the Tail Event NETwork (TENET) to identify financial markets with greater potential risk, and simultaneously investigate the interdependence between them. We find strong time-varying connectedness across 23 emerging markets during the main crisis episodes, including the most recent COVID-19 pandemic, using data from January 1995 to May 2021. The network analysis revealed that emerging European markets are top risk transmitters, whereas emerging Asian markets are top risk receivers. China showed disconnection from the network, reflecting its diversification potential for investors. Our findings offer several policy and regulatory implications. • We investigated the tail-event network dependence of 23 emerging markets;• Tail-Event NETwork (TENET) technique has been employed;• We show that European emerging markets are top risk transmitters, while Asian economies are top risk receivers;• Chinese market is decoupled from the rest of markets analysed. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Emerging Markets Review is the property of Elsevier B.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

GCC Hydrocarbon Economies and COVID: Old Trends, New Realities

The book considers the impact of COVID-19 on the GCC member states through the prism of challenges faced by their hydrocarbon sector. Yet, the publication's discourse is not solely focused on the problems experienced by the oil and gas industries of the GCC member states after the beginning of the COVID pandemic. Instead, the contributors will analyze how these challenges and subsequent response to them affected other aspects of the GCC socio-economic and political development, from direct impact of the COVID on the energy sector of the GCC to socio-economic consequences of the oil market crisis for the region and its potential fallouts for the international relations of the Gulf. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023, corrected publication 2023.

Development and Current Situation of Forest Use by Camping Sites in Japan

After the Second World War, camping and camping sites in forests have developed and increased significantly from the 1980 s to 1990 s in Japan, relying on the laws and institutions established from the 1950 s to 1970 s across multiple administrative sectors, obtaining social approval as a legitimatized outdoor activity and forest use. Since the 2000s, the management of these camping sites has deteriorated mainly owing to economic recession, which caused the movement of camping site renewal by the private sector. This movement directed the diversification of forest use by camping sites in recent years. Camping facilities have been developed in many ways to meet the needs of campers, including organized group camps that promote education and experience in forests, solo camps, glamping, and workcations under the spread of the COVID-19 that demand relaxing or productive environment, and leisure camps that require enrichment of outdoor activities. As a result of this diversification, possibilities for effective utilization of forests and regional revitalization through the management of camping sites have been observed. Many camping sites have utilized forest lands, standing trees, and forest spaces to develop facilities and services, and there are cases where firewood production for campers has promoted the reorganization and development of local forestry and securing of personnel for forest management. In addition to securing local employment brought by reorganization, local revitalization in rural and mountainous areas has been promoted through the linkage of the needs of campers to positive economic effects, increase of the visitors who deeply connected to local people, and comprehensive and sustainable use of resources in local societies. © 2023 Nihon Ringakkai. All rights reserved.

Aspects regarding the diversification of services in hotels as a result of changing consumer behavior post 2020

During the COVID-19 pandemic, with events and travel on hold, all sectors of the hospitality industry have been challenged to reimagine their business models to keep their businesses profitable, even by rethinking them towards sustainability. While there have been positive signs of recovery and increases in hotel bookings, the pandemic has dramatically changed consumer demands and expectations, forcing companies to adapt their offerings accordingly, so hotels have gotten creative over the past 2 years in repurposing and selling rooms and spaces for events, after the negative impact caused by the SARS COV 2 pandemic. The purpose of the paper is to highlight the actions undertaken by tourism operators in order to reinvent the services offered as a result of the pandemic.

Coping strategies in mitigating COVID-19 pandemic's effect on farming household income in Osun State, Nigeria

Income of farming households with low socio-economic status is a task in emerging nations, rural parts of Nigeria inclusive. In connection with this, the entrance of Covid-19 pandemic posed a grave risk to the economy of the households. This study, therefore, investigate the coping strategies in mitigating Covid-19 pandemic's effect on the farming households' income. Data for the paper were collected from 150 farming household heads, through multistage sampling method, with the use of interview scheduled and analysed using appropriate statistics. The findings showed that many (57.3%) of the respondents were male. The widely practiced coping strategies during the pandemic were rationed spending (=2.63), job diversification (=2.40), reduction in hired labour (=2.36), household food rationing (=2.28) among others. There is substantial relationship between household size (r = 0.075, p = 0.003), annual income (r = 0.033, p = 0.004) and coping strategies practiced at p0.005. It was concluded that the pandemic had great effect on the income of the farming household. The study recommends formulation of necessary, effective and urgent policies for assisting and generating fresh employments and revenue producing prospects for affected households.

Diversification and hedging strategies of green bonds in financial asset portfolios during the COVID-19 pandemic

In this paper, we investigate whether investors can reap potential diversification or hedging benefits from holding green bonds in a portfolio containing a conventional financial asset during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from 6 November 2014 to 5 November 2020, we estimate corrected dynamic conditional correlation between between green bonds and four major asset classes: stocks, corporate bonds, commodities, and clean energy. We extend our analysis by using these correlations to examine hedging, optimal portfolio weights, and naïve strategies and evaluate their implications for investors by calculating hedging effectiveness and utility gain improvement. Results reveal that across the full sample, pre-COVID-19, and during-COVID-19 periods, optimal portfolio weights represent an ideal strategy to realize the greatest risk reduction and risk-adjusted return. Further, green bonds could add substantial diversification benefits for investors holding assets in clean energy, global stocks, and commodities.

Diversification evidence of bitcoin and gold from wavelet analysis.

To measure the diversification capability of Bitcoin, this study employs wavelet analysis to investigate the coherence of Bitcoin price with the equity markets of both the emerging and developed economies, considering the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent Russia-Ukraine war. The results based on the data from January 9, 2014 to May 31, 2022 reveal that compared with gold, Bitcoin consistently provides diversification opportunities with all six representative market indices examined, specifically under the normal market condition. In particular, for short-term horizons, Bitcoin shows favorably low correlation with each index for all years, whereas exception is observed for gold. In addition, diversification between Bitcoin and gold is demonstrated as well, mainly for short-term investments. However, the diversification benefit is conditional for both Bitcoin and gold under the recent pandemic and war crises. The findings remind investors and portfolio managers planning to incorporate Bitcoin into their portfolios as a diversification tool to be aware of the global geopolitical conditions and other uncertainty in considering their investment tools and durations.

Livelihood Strategies of the Bajo Fishing Community in the Outbreak of COVID-19 (Study of Bajo People in Salabangka Island of Central, Sulawesi, Indonesia)

This study aims to find out how Sama Bajo fishermen adapt to the seasonal moonson and environmental changes in the midst of the Corona Virus Desease (Covid-19) outbreak. The research conducted in one of the villages in the Salabangka Archipelago, precisely on Paku Island which is one of the largest islands in the Salabangka archipelago of Central Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. The study utilyzed the principle of a livelihood approaches. The adaptation strategies observed include;livelihood diversification, business intensification, utilization of social networks, asset sales and mortgages. The results showed that some of Sama Bajo fishermen carried out adaptation strategies, several livelihood adaptation strategies that were previously quite effective in overcoming the decline in income due to seasonal changes, currently could not be fully relied to tackle stress and shock. The development of several multinational mining investment activities on land has also resulted in pollution that affects the loss of seaweed cultivation which was previously become the mainstay of fishermen in times of famine. This situation has caused some Sama Bajo fishermen, especially the younger generation who have studied up to university to consider trying new livelihoods on land that were previously rarely done by Bajo fishermen. © 2023 WITPress. All rights reserved.

Reevaluating the risk minimization utility of Islamic stocks and bonds (Sukuk) in international financial markets

We examine the risk minimization utility of Islamic stock and Sukuk (bond) indices by studying their linkages against traditional global counterparts. We first employ an asymmetric power ARCH-based ADCC model on an extended dataset employed by Kenourgios et al. (2016). Our sample ranges from July 2007 to June 2021 covering the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), the European Sovereign Debt Crisis (ESDC), and the COVID-19 pandemic. Econometric tests suggest strong evidence of coupling in the bulk of Islamic equity indices. A handful of emerging market indices constitute exceptions. Qualitatively similar results emerge from time–frequency analysis via wavelet tools, revealing pervasive coupling in both returns and volatility series. The linkages are scale-dependent in only a few pairs. In contrast, Sukuk indices are uncoupled from their global fixed income counterparts and relevant risky debt portfolios. In sum, the risk-return characteristics of Islamic equities (especially in developed economies) remain coupled to major global benchmarks and therefore are unlikely to appeal as safe haven candidates. The converse applies to Sukuk, which promises potential portfolio diversification benefits and safe haven status in ‘normal' and crisis periods.

Industrial Development Policies Based on Economic Complexity Under Plausible Scenarios: Case of Iran 2027

Nowadays, developing the best policy mix to manage national industrial development is an open question. The inherent complexity and competitive circumstances increased the risk of failure and challenged the development of national programs, especially in the case of developing economies. To address such a complex world, this study proposes a novel scenario-based economic complexity analyzing methodology to overcome future uncertainties. The method contains two independent research lines. The first one evaluates and prioritizes industrial development by referring to the opportunity gain and product complexity indexes (a historical and current analysis). The other is to develop future scenarios through an expert-based process to uncover the most plausible futures (future-oriented evaluation for uncertainty behaviors). Then, results merged to increase a robust policy to guarantee development success and reduce failure risks. Iran has been selected as the case study since the country is facing a very uncertain future both from political and economic perspectives. Results revealed that the priority is to focus on the opportunity gain of products instead of product complexity since the country is facing international sanctions, limited investment capacities, and the potential of global challenges in the era of globalization, similar to the world faced during COVID-19 pandemics. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Can treasury inflation-protected securities safeguard investors from outward risk spillovers? A portfolio hedging strategy through the prism of COVID-19

Documenting the interlinkages among assets that are widely used to hedge against inflation is crucial for investors, as the necessity to protect the investment portfolio is stronger under inflationary conditions. For this purpose, we investigate the volatility spillovers between treasury inflation-protected securities (TIPS) and a battery of other assets perceived as inflation hedges, including bonds, gold, real estate, oil and equities. The applied methodology comprehends the time-varying parameter vector autoregressive (TVP-VAR) extension of the Diebold and Yilmaz (Int J Forecast 28:57–66, 2012, 10.1016/j.ijforecast.2011.02.006) approach for the period 1/1/2010–3/31/2022. Our results indicate that the assets under consideration are moderately interconnected and subjected to several exogenous shocks, such as the US–China trade war, the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia–Ukraine war. Furthermore, we assess the hedging effectiveness of TIPS against each asset by estimating hedge ratios and optimal portfolios weights, before and after the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, by using conditional variance estimations (DCC-GARCH). The empirical findings show that the short position in the volatility of TIPS is proved to be an excellent hedge for all the sampled assets, with the exception of short-term Treasury bonds, and their hedging ability was improved during COVID-19.

Indian Sugar Industry: Towards Self-reliance for Sustainability.

The South-Asian region including India is a major hub of sugar producing countries with ample presence in the global sugar scenario. India has a rich history of sugarcane and sugar production since time immemorial, and the industry has gradually evolved to find a place among the top sugar producing countries of the world. The innovative technological interventions for sugarcane improvement, production and management have helped the industry to progress towards a diversified and bio-based productive, sustainable and profitable one, thereby gradually becoming self-reliant. This self-reliant industry with the right mix of linkages and collaborations, has been successful in tackling the various unforeseen challenges including those that cropped up during COVID-19 pandemic. The industry also fulfils its Corporate Social Responsibilities leading to the overall betterment of its stakeholders. This has enabled the Indian sugar industry to align itself with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals.

The role of supply chain diversification in mitigating the negative effects of supply chain disruptions in COVID-19

Purpose: This study examines the firm-level financial consequences caused by supply chain disruptions during COVID-19 and explores how firms' supply chain diversification strategies, including diversified suppliers, customers and products, moderate the negative effect on firm performance. Design/methodology/approach: Based on data drawn from 222 publicly traded firms in China, the authors use event study methodology to estimate the effects of supply chain disruptions on the financial performance of affected firms. Regression analyses are conducted to examine the moderating effects of supply chain diversification. Findings: Firms affected by supply chain disruptions during COVID-19 experienced a significant decline in shareholder value in two weeks and a subsequent decrease in operating performance in one year. Diversified suppliers, customers and products act as shock absorbers to alleviate the negative effects. Further regression shows a substitution effect between customer and product diversification. Cross-industry comparisons reveal that service firms experienced more loss than manufacturing firms. Customer diversification mitigates the adverse effects of supply chain disruptions for both manufacturing and service firms. Supplier diversification exerts a noteworthy role in manufacturing firms, while product diversification is beneficial for service firms. Originality/value: The study provides empirical evidence on the magnitude of financial consequences of supply chain disruptions during COVID-19 in both the short term and long term and enriches the current understanding of how to build resilience from the supply chain diversification perspective. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Financial health of the Malaysian public universities: whither the way forward?

The purpose of the paper is to examine the financial health of selected public universities in Malaysia. The study assessed the performance of Malaysian research universities, on the primary reserve ratio, viability ratio, return on net asset ratio and net operating revenue ratio, as well as the Hirschman-Herfindahl Index for revenue diversification from 2010 to 2020. Results suggest poor financial health, high dependence on government funding and revenue volatility. Several universities recorded consecutive financial deficits in recent years. Third-stream revenues are low, and the universities are struggling to generate the 25% self-generated revenue target set by the government. This paper provides longitudinal empirical data on the financial health of public universities and has important implications for policymakers and university management in budget allocation and financial management decisions, particularly given the adverse financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Higher Education Policy & Management is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Measuring Dependence in a Set of Asset Returns

An index measuring the degree of dependence in a set of asset returns is defined as the ratio of an equivalent number of independent assets to the number of assets. The equivalence is based on either attaining the same optimized value enhancement or spread reduction. The value enhancement is the difference in value of a value maximizing portfolio and the maximum value delivered by the components. The spread reduction is the percentage reduction attained by a spread minimizing portfolio relative to the smallest spread for the components. Asset values or bid and ask prices of portfolios, are modeled by conservative valuation operators from the theory of two price economies. The dependence indices fall with the number of assets in the portfolio and they are explained by a measure of concentration applied to normalized eigenvalues of the correlation matrix along with the average level of correlation, the level of the (Rudin and Morgan, 2006) portfolio diversification index and the number of assets in the portfolio. A time series of the indices constructed on the basis of the S&P 500 index and the nine sector ETF's reveals a collapse during the financial crisis with no recovery until 2016, with a peak in February 2020 and a COVID crash in March of 2020. Furthermore, factor dependence benefits are richer than those found in equity indices. Dependence benefits across global indices are not as strong as dependence benefits across an equal number of domestic assets, but they rise substantially for longer horizons of up to three years.

Technology-Intense Service Offerings in the Light of Economic Complexity: Establishing a Holistic Service Ecosystem

Crisis situations, like the COVID-19 pandemic, have historically been identified as times of enhanced innovation and entrepreneurial activities. Innovation actors are required to respond quickly to a new situation bearing in mind the effects of actions across their network of partners and competitors as well as rising economic complexity. Indeed, first indications suggest that this pandemic is no different and has facilitated the use of digital technologies. In order to assess these developments, this paper studies new service offerings based on digital technologies using the example of three major Russian banks. We found that banks have now developed into technology platforms that use their experience to engage in areas like education, advanced robotics, and health care. Technologies developed by partner organizations, such as the integration of blockchain solutions, have spread rapidly. Thereby, banks have obtained a strategic advantage for launching innovations in the financial industry, including technology and knowledge transfers from other industries. © 2023 by the authors.

Tourism promoting sustainable regional development: focusing on rural and creative tourism in low-density and remote regions

This study, based on the analysis of the existing bibliography, as well as the result of the appreciation of a low-density and remote case studies located in the Azores Archipelago, seeks to identify a theoretical nexus regarding rural and creative tourism and regional sustainable development in the post-COVID-19 scenario. In this regard, the authors applied analytical descriptive and inductive deductive methods. Contextually, the study aims not only to understand the subject in more prominent detail but also to clarify new tendencies, approaches, and potential guidelines that allow the actors implicated to design and drive sustainable regional development in the long term. The remote and low-density territories are the most appealing destination for this new tourism dynamics. Also, the paper shows that it is possible to establish that in this ultra-peripheral territory, the tourism sector was already presuming relevance in 2019, benefiting from a large sample of entrepreneurs and actors in the tourism sector in the Portuguese Autonomous Region of the Azores. Some potential implications may include the following: (i) Increased economic benefits: Creative tourism can bring in additional revenue for local businesses and organizations and individual artists and craftspeople;(ii) Preservation of cultural heritage: Creative tourism can help to support and preserve traditional cultural practices and crafts, which can be an essential aspect of island communities' identity;(iii) Job creation: Creative tourism can create new job opportunities for locals, such as tour guides, workshop instructors, and artists.