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We aimed to analyze the temporal trends in the per capita food (kcal/day/person) and protein (g/day/person) availability at the national level in the Southeast Asian (SEA) countries from 1961 to 2018. To avoid intercountry variations and errors, we used a dataset derived from the FAO’s old and new food balance sheets. We used the joinpoint model and the jump model to analyze the temporal trends. The annual percentage change (APC) was computed for each segment of the trends. Per capita food and protein availability in the SEA countries increased significantly by 0.8% per year (54.0%) and 1.1% per year (85.1%), respectively, from 1961 to 2018. During the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s the per capita food availability in mainland SEA did not change significantly and was less than 2200 kcal/person/day. Since the early 1990s, food availability increased appreciably in the mainland SEA countries, except for Cambodia, which has experienced the increasing trend from the late 1990s. Distinct from the mainland, maritime SEA countries showed an up–down–up growth trend in their per-capita food availability from 1961 to 2018. Food-availability growth slowed down for Brunei (since the mid-1980s) and Malaysia (since mid-the 1990s) whereas it increased for Indonesia (1.5% per year), Timor-Leste (0.9% per year), and the Philippines (0.8% per year). Per capita protein availability trends in the mainland SEA countries were similar to the countries’ per capita food availability trends. Since the late 1980s, Thailand and since the late 1990s, other mainland SEA countries experienced a significant growth in their per capita protein availability. Since the late 1990s, per capita protein availability in Vietnam increased markedly and reached the highest available amount in the SEA region, following Brunei and Myanmar. Per capita protein availability increased almost continuously among the maritime SEA countries, except for Timor-Leste. Marked inequality did exist between maritime and mainland SEA countries in per capita food-availability growth till the mid-1990s. Considerable increases in per capita food availability have occurred in most of the SEA countries, but growth is inadequate for Timor-Leste and Cambodia.

This article reviews the literature on international comparative household finance. It presents summary statistics on household balance sheets for 13 developed countries and uses these statistics to discuss common features and contrasts across countries. It then discusses retirement savings, investments in risky assets, unsecured debt, and mortgages.

Piped drinking water supplies are exposed to a range of threats. Changing hazard situations arise from climate change, digitisation, and changing conditions in the power supply, among other things. Risk and crisis management adapted to the hazard situation can increase the resilience of the piped drinking water supply. Analogous to the risk management system, this article describes a methodology that ranges from hazard analysis with the prioritisation of 57 individual hazards to vulnerability assessment with the help of balance sheet structure models (BSM) and the planning and implementation of measures to increase the resilience of the piped drinking water supply in a targeted manner. The work steps mentioned build on each other and were tested using the case study of a water supply company in Saxony (Germany). As a result, priority hazards are identified, the remaining supply periods and replacement and emergency water requirements are determined as part of the vulnerability assessment, and finally, planning principles for increasing resilience are documented. The methodology focuses primarily on practicable application by water supply companies.

Using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach, environmental benefits in terms of CO2 stored in chestnut wood in Italy have been calculated. Using one of the methodologies proposed under the LCA umbrella, a physical and formal balance sheet of CO2 has been built. Chestnut forests (Castanea sativa Mill.) are one of the most critical forest types in Europe. They cover an area of 800,000 hectares in Italy, most of which are managed as coppices. Chestnut wood’s high-quality physical-chemical and mechanical characteristics and medium-long durability explains its widespread uses. In this case study a section of a public forest in Central Italy (Lazio Region) has been considered. In the section, during the rotation, two types of intervention were carried out: thinning at 19 years of age, and final cutting at the age of 32. A production of 416 and 93 m3ha−1 for final cutting and thinning, respectively, was recorded. The global amount of 507 m3 is the functional unit, which has stored 547,875 kgCO2. The combination of forest management and sawmill processing produces semi-finished chestnut timber products for 125 m3, which have a physical storage of 135,210 kgCO2. Using the formal balance sheet of CO2, total emissions from processing were recorded for a total of 27,766 kgCO2. At the exit of sawmill, products stored 107,444 kgCO2, which is the amount of Net-Carbon Dioxide Surplus (Net-CDS). Transportation from sawmill to market reduces the sequestered CO2 by 0.77 kgCO2/km. The Net-CDS represents a competitive advantage in the timber market. If tree species have the same physical, chemical, mechanical and price parameters, the timber consumer would prefer to buy wood with the highest Net-CDS.

This paper assesses the macroeconomic effects of unconventional monetary policies by estimating a panel vector autoregression (VAR) with monthly data from eight advanced economies over a sample spanning the period since the onset of the global financial crisis. It finds that an exogenous increase in central bank balance sheets at the zero lower bound leads to a temporary rise in economic activity and consumer prices. The estimated output effects turn out to be qualitatively similar to the ones found in the literature on the effects of conventional monetary policy, while the impact on the price level is weaker and less persistent. Individual country results suggest that there are no major differences in the macroeconomic effects of unconventional monetary policies across countries, despite the heterogeneity of the measures that were taken.

I examine a dataset of both quantitative (hard) adjustments to firms' reported U.S. GAAP financial statement numbers and qualitative (soft) adjustments to firms' credit ratings that Moody's develops and uses in its credit rating process. I first document differences between firms' reported and Moody's adjusted numbers that are both large and frequent across firms. For example, primarily because of upward adjustments to interest expense and debt attributable to firms' off-balance sheet debt, on average, adjusted coverage (cash flow-to-debt) ratios are 27 percent (8 percent) lower and adjusted leverage ratios are 70 percent higher than the corresponding U.S. GAAP ratios. I then find that Moody's hard and soft rating adjustments are associated with significantly higher credit spreads and flatter credit spread term structures. Overall, the results indicate that Moody's quantitative adjustments to financial statement numbers and qualitative adjustments to credit ratings enable it to better capture default risk, consistent with it effectively processing both hard and soft information.

This study investigates how differences between the rating agencies' initial (at the date of debt issuance) and subsequent (post-issuance) monitoring incentives affect securitizing banks' rating accuracy. We hypothesize that the agencies have stronger incentives to monitor issuers when providing initial versus post-issuance ratings. We document that initial ratings are positively associated with off-balance sheet securitized assets and incrementally associated with on-balance sheet retained securities. However, subsequent ratings fail to capture current exposure to off-balance sheet securitizations. We also find that subsequent ratings reflect default risk less accurately than initial ratings. The subsequent ratings' responsiveness to default risk is worse when a bank has more off-balance sheet securitized assets. Collectively, our findings are consistent with lax post-issuance monitoring. They raise questions about the effectiveness of using ratings as an ongoing contracting mechanism and suggest that conclusions about rating accuracy could differ depending on whether researchers focus on initial versus post-issuance ratings.

The present study explores the effectiveness of the credit channel of monetary policy transmission in India from the perspective of magnitude, timing, and composition puzzles. To validate, further investigation of the effectiveness of the balance sheet channel and bank lending channel using the corporate cash flows and interest rate spreads, respectively, has been done. The study employs the structural vector autoregression model using the long-time quarterly series sample period from June 1998 to June 2022. The findings show that the anomalies concerning magnitude, timing, and composition effect do not exhibit a strong presence in the Indian context. The analysis of the weighted average call money rate and coverage ratio suggests a weak presence of the balance sheet channel in India with a weak negative correlation of 0.2943 (p < 0.05). The overall behavior of spread analysis also shows a weak presence of the bank lending channel in India. Although some presence of the bank lending channel is seen on banks’ managed liability side, the effect of external finance premium is not reflected in the lending rates with a correlation of 0.0577 (p > 0.05) between prime lending rate spread and weighted average call money rate spread. From the evidence, the study concludes the weak presence of the credit channel in India. Therefore, the monetary authorities might have to rely on other channels or may devise other unconventional mechanisms like Operation Twist and Long-Term Repo Operations observed during the COVID-19 pandemic to steer the real economy.

Research Questions- As an output of double-entry bookkeeping practices, when were the balance sheets first seen in Ottoman Empire? What factors (people, legislation, internationalization, etc.) impacted the layout or format of the balance sheets until the Capital Markets Law was enacted in 1982 in Turkey? When were the classified balance sheets first seen in Turkey before 1982? Motivation- The study is inspired by country-specific financial reporting history studies. Idea- This study investigates the history of the classified balance sheets in Turkey before 1982 regarding changes, developments, and evolutions and aims to explore the development of classified balance sheets in the Ottoman and Turkey. Data- For the study, secondary sources such as accessible textbooks adopted by higher education institutions by 1982 in Turkey are scanned and examined. Findings- The study argues that classified balance sheets in Turkey before 1982 evolved by translating from French, German, and American sources. This could be observed in the accounting textbooks published by different authors with different educational backgrounds. Contribution- The findings may help interested researchers pursue comparative studies or explore such developments and evolutions in their jurisdictions.

This paper empirically analyzes the non-linear effect of economic activities on ecological balance indicators that estimate the balance between economies’ pressure on nature and the biologically productive resource areas affected by human activity and the earth’s ecological carrying capacity. In measuring this balance, ecological balance sheet indicators are divided into four sub-components: cropland, fishing grounds, forest area, and grazing land. The sample of the study consists of the EU-15 countries over the period 1995–2016. To render the study robust with respect to econometric issues such as potential endogeneity bias, cross-country heterogeneity, non-linearity, and time instability, the panel smooth transition regression (PSTR) method is adapted. The empirical findings reveal that up to a certain threshold level, economic activities do not affect the ecological balance as nature can compensate for the resulting externalities, but beyond this threshold, waste accumulation and pollution exceed nature’s capacity to absorb. Consequently, these findings do not empirically support the EKC hypothesis with an inverted U-shaped curve and suggest that active environmental policies are needed to improve the environment.