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The 2030 Agenda has among its key objectives the poverty eradication through increasing the level of education. A good level of education and investment in culture of a country is in fact necessary to guarantee a sustainable economy, in which coexists satisfactory levels of quality of life and an equitable distribution of income. There is a lack of studies in particular on the relations between some significant dimensions, such as education, culture and poverty, considering time lags for the measurement of impacts. Therefore, this study aims to fill this gap by focusing on the relationship between education, culture and poverty based on a panel of data from 34 European countries, over a 5-year period, 2015–2019. For this purpose, after applying principal component analysis to avoid multicollinearity problems, the authors applied three different approaches: pooled-ordinary least squares model, fixed effect model and random effect model. Fixed-effects estimator was selected as the optimal and most appropriate model. The results highlight that increasing education and culture levels in these countries reduce poverty. This opens space to new research paths and policy strategies that can start from this connection to implement concrete actions aimed at widening and improving educational and cultural offer.

The essence of this study is to investigate the influence of the board gender diversity on firms' accounting and market-based performance using a sample of Standard & Poor's 500 companies belonging to the information technology sector over 12 years. Using the pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) method, the outcomes provide evidence for a positive influence of women on corporate boards on both measures of company performance, except for the percentage of female executives in the case of return on assets (ROA). After estimating the fixed effects and random-effects through panel data, the econometric outcomes show no statistically significant association among board gender diversity and ROA but a positive influence of the number and percentage of women on board on price-to-earnings ratio.

This paper evaluates the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on economic growth in Africa based on a sample of 54 countries from 2005 to 2015. The sample is further divided along five sub-regions and the outcomes measured by estimating pooled ordinary least squares, random and fixed effects and system generalised method of moments models. The ICT indicators are individuals using the internet, mobile subscribers and fixed telephone subscribers with trade openness and inflation rate as control variables. Findings, among others, reveal that (1) ICT development has a statistically significant positive relationship with economic growth, (2) the output elasticities of the three ICT indicators are significantly different, (3) the “leapfrogging” hypothesis holds, (4) mobile subscription has the largest output elasticity across all specifications and has the biggest potentials to enable Africa to skip traditional developmental stages, (5) regressions for the sub-samples show statistically significant differences of the output elasticity of ICT indicators. The study recommends that concerted efforts must be directed towards harnessing the inherent benefits of ICT usage which includes reducing the rising cost attributable to the usage of communication technology facilities such as the cost of buying a cellular phone, internet connectivity rates, subscription rates and so on.

The assessment of the informal economy's impact on economic growth in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states was carried out using three different static panel data models: pooled Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), random effects, and fixed effects models. This comprehensive study covered a period of twenty-seven years and included ten countries, yielding a total of 270 observations. The estimated coefficient for the informal economy in the random effects model was 0.0780, while in the fixed effects model it was 0.1747, both of which were statistically significant at the 5% level. These results indicated that an increase in the formal economy would contribute positively to real GDP growth in the ASEAN member states. Additionally, both panel data models revealed that the inflation rate significantly affected real GDP, although the estimated coefficients were negative, with values of -0.0723 for the RE model and -0.0995 for the FE model, both significant at the 1% level. Conversely, the research did not find a significant relationship between population growth rate and real GDP. Notably, there was no significant correlation between any of the variables and real GDP when analyzed under the OLS model.

The objective of this paper is to explore the relationship among corporate governance, timelines of financial reporting and ownership concentration taken as a moderating effect among the listed firms on Pakistan Stock Exchange. In this study, we developed hypothesis about the relationship between corporate governance and timelines of financial reporting by using the data of 100 listed firms during the period of 2013 to 2017. By applying ordinary least squares, we find out that auditor brand name decreases the audit report lag and increases the quality of the audit. Audit opinion also has an impact on the audit quality if there is an unqualified report, and then the quality of the audit increases with decrease in lags. A large number of board meeting decreases the lags and increases the audit quality. Independent board decreases the lags and increases the audit quality. Family ownership, the most important variable, decreases the management report lag and increases the audit quality. If ownership concentration is taken as a moderator, then board diligence has a negative relationship with the timelines that show the large number of board meeting decreases the lags and increases the audit quality. The board size is positively related with timelines, which means that larger board increases the lags and the audit quality decreases. The audit committee presence decreases the management report lag and without moderating, the audit committee has no impact on the timelines. However, some hypotheses are fully supported, and some partially support the relationship. Our finding is that corporate governance has an impact on timelines of financial reporting and ownership concentration has moderating effect that enhances the relationship.

The effect of digitalization on inequality continues to spark discussions, with opinions divided on whether it alleviates or exacerbates the issue. This paper explores how digitalization has affected income inequality in Ukraine from 2017 to 2021. A pooled OLS model is used to investigate the relationship between mobile communication access and fixed Internet access and usage and their influence on disposable income levels. The findings reveal that mobile and Internet access significantly impact income distribution, with a notable disparity between high- and low-income regions. Specifically, wealthier regions benefit more from mobile access, while low-income regions lag due to insufficient broadband infrastructure. These results underscore the need for targeted management strategies to reduce regional income inequality via digitalization in Ukraine. The transition from desktop internet to mobile connectivity is clear, as 4G and 4G+ networks have enough speed to substitute fixed Internet and have become the primary means of internet access in Ukraine, reflecting a global trend. This highlights the increasing significance of mobile Internet, especially in lower-income regions, as a practical alternative to fixed broadband. Hence, mobile networks can boost economic participation and reduce regional disposable income inequality. The study suggests that targeted investments in digital infrastructure can significantly contribute to regional economic development. AcknowledgmentThis paper is funded as part of the project “Financial tools for reducing economic inequality in Ukraine” research project (No. 0124U002254), conducted at the State Organization “Institute for Economics and Forecasting of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.”

Slovakia has experienced a six-year period of decreased labour market efficiency during a post-crisis period and growing emigration flows before and after a post-crisis period. There is also the concurrent issue of the lack of sufficient business activities in the southern, northern and eastern regions, and the economic development of some of the Slovak regions lacks diversification. We have analysed labour market conditions and emigration trends in Slovakia and EU neighbouring countries. The analysis of emigration trends has shown that among EU neighbouring countries, the Slovak migrant population tends to migrate mostly to the Czech Republic. We conducted regression analysis with the use of the ordinary least squares method to identify the main drivers affecting emigration from Slovakia to the Czech Republic as the primary destination country for Slovak migrants. The analysis has revealed that unemployment rates in both countries, labour market regulation which was introduced in the Czech Republic as well as EU enlargement in 2004 are the most significant triggers for emigration in Slovakia. Based on the results obtained, we have discussed possible ways to stimulate economic growth and prevent future emigration from Slovakia.

The healthiness of the banks is critical because they are highly fragile, vulnerable and closely integrated with other sectors. One way of testing the healthiness of the banks is through the measure of their profitability. Profitability is the primary objective of any business including commercial banks. Profitable banks can withstand any negative shocks and stabilize the whole financial sector. The main objective of this study was to analyze the determinants of the profitability of commercial banks in Ethiopia. To achieve this objective a secondary source balanced panel data of ten years from nine commercial banks were used, and internal determinants; business mix indicators, risk aversion index, management efficiency, liquidity risk, bank size, and external determinants; ownership, market concentration, and GDP, were regressed against return on asset by using the pooled OLS technique. Results indicated that internal determinants were more important than external factors. Thus business mix indicators, risk aversion index, management efficiency, liquidity risk and bank size had a significant effect on the return on asset, whereas except ownership other external determinants, i.e. market concentration and GDP were insignificant to determine return on assets of Ethiopian commercial banks. Finally bank managers were recommended to rely on the debt financing sources paying a due attention to the optimal levels, mobilize more deposits, extend loan provision and expand business mixes services.

The healthiness of the banks is critical because they are highly fragile, vulnerable and closely integrated with other sectors. One way of testing the healthiness of the banks is through the measure of their profitability. Profitability is the primary objective of any business including commercial banks. Profitable banks can withstand any negative shocks and stabilize the whole financial sector. The main objective of this study was to analyze the determinants of the profitability of commercial banks in Ethiopia. To achieve this objective a secondary source balanced panel data of ten years from nine commercial banks were used, and internal determinants; business mix indicators, risk aversion index, management efficiency, liquidity risk, bank size, and external determinants; ownership, market concentration, and GDP, were regressed against return on asset by using the pooled OLS technique. Results indicated that internal determinants were more important than external factors. Thus business mix indicators, risk aversion index, management efficiency, liquidity risk and bank size had a significant effect on the return on asset, whereas except ownership other external determinants, i.e. market concentration and GDP were insignificant to determine return on assets of Ethiopian commercial banks. Finally bank managers were recommended to rely on the debt financing sources paying a due attention to the optimal levels, mobilize more deposits, extend loan provision and expand business mixes services.