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The surge in internet usage has generated widespread speculation and optimism regarding its potential impact on the accessibility to financial services. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of internet penetration on the accessibility of banking services in developed and developing countries.

Panel data regression methods are used to estimate the impact of internet penetration on accessibility to banking services in a sample of 74 countries from Global Findex survey waves of 2011, 2014, 2017 and 2021. To mitigate potential issues related to heteroscedasticity, autocorrelation and cross-sectional dependence, the study has implemented cluster robust standard errors testing. Furthermore, as a sensitivity check, the sample has been segregated into developed and developing country groups.

The study finds a significant positive correlation between internet penetration and banking access in full sample. Subsample analysis reveals that this relationship is statistically significant in developed countries, but not in developing ones, despite being positive. The research discusses the implications of these findings for both country groups.

Research to date has largely investigated the link between information and communication technology (ICT) and financial inclusion, often treating internet penetration as one component of ICT, which obscures its individual influence. This study, however, isolates internet penetration to specifically analyze its distinct effects on banking accessibility across developed and developing countries.

The study aims to examine the heterogeneous effects of physical infrastructure on farm and non-farm sector output in 16 prominent states of India for the period 2005–2019.

We construct a composite physical infrastructure index comprising four indicators namely road density, rail density, tele-density and per capita power availability using the principal component analysis (PCA) method. We estimate the impact of physical infrastructure on aggregate as well as farm and non-farm sector output using the fixed effects regression with Driscoll–Kraay (FE-DK) standard errors to account for cross-sectional dependence in our sample. Furthermore, to mitigate the potential endogeneity concern, we utilise the panel instrumental variable (IV) regression method to estimate the model.

Our results imply that physical infrastructure plays a significant role in driving economic growth. We find that infrastructure development affects the non-farm sector output positively while the farm sector output remains unaffected.

Due to data limitations, our study is based on 16 prominent states only. It is plausible that the selected infrastructure indicators are not highly relevant for the farm sector. Further research can be done to identify appropriate infrastructure that helps stimulate agriculture sector output.

We examine the varying effects of physical infrastructure on farm and non-farm sector output in the Indian context. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that examines the effect of infrastructure development on sectoral output at the sub-national level.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-06-2024-0468

The main purpose of the study is to investigate the impact of gender diversity both at the board and workforce level on firm performance (FP) in the Indian context.

This study is based on annual data of 200 companies listed on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) for the period 2012–2019. The authors have used the fixed-effects (FE) regression and system generalized method of moments to estimate the impact of board gender diversity and workforce gender diversity (WGD) on FP. The authors have used Blau's Index (BI) and Shannon's Index (SI) to measure gender diversity. Further, the authors have used return on assets and Tobin's Q (TBQ) to measure FP.

The authors' panel regression results suggest that board gender diversity and WGD have a positive and statistically significant impact on FP. The authors' findings are robust across different methods of estimation and alternative measures of FP.

This paper examines the impact of gender diversity both at the board and workforce level on FP of 200 companies listed on BSE. The authors' study contributes to the literature that is sparse in the Indian context and provides new insights on the impact of board and WGD on FP. The findings have useful policy implications. To achieve better performance, it is imperative to appreciate gender diversity at the governance and workforce level in a fast-growing economy like India.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether surge in foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows leads to surge in economic growth in 52 developing countries for the period 1990-2014.

The author used a threshold approach to identify surge incidences in gross domestic product (GDP) per capita growth rates and FDI inflows (measured as percentage of GDP) for each country included in the sample. Three different criteria are used to identify surge instances. As a preliminary analysis the author used the probit and complementary log–log regression methods to estimate the likelihood of growth surge occurrence. To correct the potential endogeneity problem the author jointly estimated the growth surge and FDI surge equations using the recursive bivariate probit (RBP) regression.

The author found that East Asia and the Pacific region has highest rate of growth surge incidences followed by South Asia. The results suggest that surge in FDI inflows significantly increases the likelihood of growth surge. The finding is robust to alternative surge definitions and methods of estimation.

The analysis reveals that inbound FDI flow is a critical driver of economic growth in developing countries. Large FDI inflows matters for achieving rapid economic growth. Therefore developing countries should adopt favourable policies to attract more FDI. Policymakers should focus on improving the investment climate of the country to boost domestic investment and to attract larger amount of FDI into the economy.

To the best of the author’s knowledge this is the first study to examine whether surge in FDI inflows stimulates surge in economic growth in developing countries. The analysis reveals that FDI surge is a robust predictor of rapid economic growth in developing countries.