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This study aims to investigate the extent of compliance of university accounting programs in Libya with the International Education Standard (IES 3) and the extent of the impact of the skills included in programs of accounting education in Libya aligned with IES 3 requirements on students' academic performance and then to identify factors that can hinder the implementation of professional skills in accounting education in Libya.

A questionnaire was prepared and circulated among accounting graduates from public universities in Libya. A total of 116 useable responses were received from many of these universities. An exploratory factor analysis based on a pairwise polychoric correlation matrix was carried out to validate the scale. Also, it applies the regression analysis for a robustness check.

The findings indicate that the skills included in accounting education programs in Libya partially comply with the instructions of IES 3 (Intellectual, Interpersonal and Communication, Personal and Organizational). They provide empirical evidence that the accounting education program in Libya is a partial tool for implementing professional skills in accounting education in Libya. The findings of this study also show that there is no statistically significant relationship between the skills included in programs of accounting education in Libya aligned with IES 3 requirements and the academic performance of students.

Findings may help the government, higher education officials and accounting faculty members in Libya pay more attention to accounting education to improve its effectiveness and meet the requirements of IES 3. Therefore, it fills an information gap in the accounting literature by investigating university accounting programs and their compliance with IES 3 in Libya, a context that is still poorly understood.

Little is known about accounting education in the Middle East and North African (MENA) countries, where the literature shows that little research has been conducted on accounting students in the countries of this region, particularly in Libyan universities.

As the international society faces unprecedented challenges associated with resource scarcity, governance scandals, increasing injustice and inequality, new opportunities for higher education institutions are emerging. This paper aims to investigate the association between national governance standards and education quality across nine western European countries, namely, the UK, Germany, France, Finland, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark and Ireland.

Using panel data from 2002 to 2017, this paper uses fixed-effects and random-effects models to examine the relationship between national governance (proxied by voice and accountability (V&A) indicator) and education quality (proxied by human development index: education index). This analysis is supplemented with conducting instrumental variable (IV) estimations to address any concerns regarding the expected occurrence of endogeneity problems.

The findings are suggestive of a significant and positive relationship between national governance and education quality in Europe. This implies that national governance standards, such as V&A, are essential actors in the enhancement of the quality of educational institutions’ outcomes.

Policymakers should implement stricter regulations and ensure that accountability indicators are motivated if they wish to increase the spending on education, which is associated with better qualities of educational institutions. A culture of continuous review of education policies needs to be upheld in the Western Europe region to be watchful of any emerging problems while maintaining a sustainable relationship between the rule of law and the education administration.

So far, a minimal number of studies focussed on examining the role of country-level governance in advancing education quality. This study, therefore, extends the body of prior literature by investigating the possible effect of national governance structures on education quality across a sample of Western European countries.

This study aims to examine the relationship between foreign finance, economic growth and CO₂ to investigate if the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) exists as an empirical evidence in 32 selected Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.

This study used quantitative analysis to test two main hypotheses: H1 is the U-shape relationship between foreign finance and environment, and H2 is the N-shaped association between economic growth and environment. In doing so, this study used panel data techniques. The panel set contained 32 countries over the period from 1990 to 2015, with 27 observations for each country. This study applied a panel OLS estimator via fixed-effects control to address heterogeneity and mitigate endogeneity. Generalized method of moments (GMM) with fixed effects-instrumental variables (FE-IV) and diagnostic tests were also used.

The results showed that foreign finance and environmental quality have an inverted U-shaped association. The three proxies’ foreign investment, foreign assets and remittance in the first stages contribute significantly to CO₂ emissions, but after the threshold point is reached, these proxies become “environmentally friendly” by their contribution to reducing CO₂ emissions. Also, a non-linear relationship denotes that foreign investment in OECD countries enhances the importance, as a proxy of foreign finance has greater environmental quality than foreign assets. Additionally, empirical results show that remittances received is linked to the highest polluted levels until a threshold point is reached, at which point it then helps reduce CO₂ emissions. The GMM and FE-IV results provide robust evidence on inverse U-shaped relationship, while the N-shaped relationship explains that economic growth produces more CO₂ emissions at the first phase of growth, but the quadratic term confirms this effect is negative after a specific level of GDP is reached. Then, this economic growth makes the environment deteriorate. These results are robust even after controlling for the omitted variable issue. The IV-FE results indicate an N-shaped relationship in the OECD countries.

Most studies have used different economic indicators as proxies to show the effects of these indicators on the environment, but they are flawed and outdated regarding the large social challenges facing contemporary, socio-financial economic systems. To overcome these disadvantages, the social, institutional and environmental aspects of economic development should also be considered. Hence, this study aims to explain this issue as a relationship with several proxies in regard to environmental, foreign finance and economic aspects.

This paper uses updated data sets for analyzing the relationship between foreign finance and economic growth as a new proxy for pollution. Also, this study simulates the financial and environmental future to show their effect on investments in different OECD countries. While this study enhances the literature by establishing an innovative control during analysis, this will increase to add value. This study is among the few studies that empirically investigate the non-linear relationship between finance and environmental degradation.

The purpose of this study is to identify the effects of MNCs measured by the foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows on the promotion of renewable energy consumption and non-renewable energy in Bangladesh. It is an emergency issue these days and makes some policy suggestions.

Based on the literature review, the study sets a time series models to empirically test FDI degrades the environmental quality in Bangladesh, using the parametric (GMM, IV estimations) and non-parametric approaches (quantile regression).

The main findings drawn from the empirical analysis are as follows. First, the FDI inflows lead to more CO₂ emissions in the Bangladeshi economy. In other words, the MNCs promote the usages of non-renewable energy which causes an increase in pollution. Second, the FDI inwards discourage renewable energy consumption and in terms of magnitude, the negative impacts of FDI on renewable energy are higher than the positive effect of FDI on CO₂ emissions. This makes the situation worse.

This study is limited to Bangladesh and explores the total impact of FDI on the environment. For further investigation, it would be better to do a detailed investigation on the FDI-renewable and nonrenewable energy relationship. For instance, one could test which type of FDI promotes green energy consumption and which one is dirtier. So, the sectorial FDI effects on pollution.

Most past studies parametric techniques and did not compare the effects of FDI on renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, Unlike the previous empirical studies, this paper uses GMM and IV estimations for the parametric approach and quantile regression (QR) as a robustness check. Also, it is the first study that approves the crowding-out effect of non-renewable using the FDI channel.

This paper aims to focus on testing the long-run relationship between fish production and two main variables, the foreign direct investment inflow and the marine trade balance in Oman, which is one of the Arab Gulf countries, during the period 1985-2016.

This study uses what known as the two-step Engle–Granger cointegration test to give evidence for the long-run relationship among the variables.

The results show that there are a negative long- and short-run relations between fish production and marine trade balance; moreover, any shocks will be corrected within two periods at the most. 

This study is one of few studies in using the econometric models to study the impact of fish production on marine trade balance and foreign direct investment.

This study aims to examine the influence of the blue economy factors on the economic growth of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries.

Secondary data from 1995 to 2018 have been used for the analysis of eight countries. The contributing factors that measure the fishing production are total aquaculture production, total fisheries production and agriculture, forestry and fishing. Trade and the rate of inflation are used as control variables. Using the feasible generalized least square technique.

It was found that the blue economy factors play a statistically significant role in the economic growth of SAARC countries and contribute to the achievement of Goal 14 of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals: to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.

This study highlights the fact that proper management and utilization of water resources may assist the stimulation of economic growth and meet the challenges of food insecurity by improving the supply of seafood in developing South Asian countries. The study proposes that the sustainable management of water resources requires an alliance across nation states. The alliance will be useful in understanding the concept of the blue economy and the role it plays in ensuring economic growth in developing nations throughout the world.

This paper aims to synthesize, analyze and categorize the empirical literature on country-specific factors that affect foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Identifying gaps and methodological challenges in the reviewed articles, recommendations are made to guide future research.

Applying the systematic review methodology, content analysis is conducted of 42 relevant empirical studies that explore country-specific FDI determinants in the MENA region during the period 1998–2018.

This review study identifies four main research gaps in the extant literature: a lack of consensus on a common definition of the MENA region and a weak understanding of the specificities of its investment environment; a limited set of FDI theories used and a lack of other theoretical perspectives; a recurrent focus on the direct relationship between host country–specific determinants and FDI, thus ignoring the moderating and mediating effects of some variables; and the absence of certain country-specific factors pertaining to the MENA countries.

This study contributes to the international business field by enhancing our understanding of the FDI determinants in emerging and developing markets, especially the MENA countries. It develops a typology of FDI country-specific factors in the MENA region based on four main categories: macroeconomic and financial, institutional and regulatory, natural resource endowment and socio-cultural. Paths for future research are suggested.

Although a number of studies suggest that big audit firms provide higher audit quality in strict legal environments, empirical evidence remains inconclusive. As little is known about the effect of auditor type on audit quality in less strictly legal environments, this study aims to investigate the impact of auditor type on audit quality in the Egyptian market.

Data of Egyptian-listed companies during the period 2011–2018 are used. To examine the impact of auditor type on audit quality, ordinary least square regression and robust standard errors clustered at year and industry level are used. This study uses discretionary accruals as a proxy for audit quality. Several additional analyzes are conducted to assess the robustness of the main results, including alternative measures of audit quality and auditor type.

The results show that audit firms tend to provide higher audit quality when they are affiliated with a foreign audit firm. However, Big 4 auditors do not provide higher audit quality compare to their counterparts. Additionally, the governmental agency, accountability state authority, that monopolize audit function in state-owned companies do not appear to be associated with higher audit quality. Finally, local audit firms have a negative association with audit quality. This may be their strategy to secure future clients that seek low-quality audits.

This study suggests that affiliation with foreign audit firms will help the Egyptian firms to develop their abilities by using advanced technology and techniques and transfer rare expertize to the Egyptian auditors. This study also shows that the strategy adopted by many Egyptian audit firms to affiliate with foreign auditors reflects the desire of these firms to be included in one tier alongside Big 4 audit firms to increase their market share under a claim of providing a higher audit quality.

This study adds to the rare but growing body of literature by investigating how auditor type affects audit quality in the context of less strictly legal environments. The results are important, as investors, standards-setters and regulators have growing concerns over audit quality since the Enron scandal. The findings suggest that audit quality depends on auditor type. These findings have important implications for investors, standards-setters and auditors interested in auditor oversight, audit quality and auditor choice.

Companies are increasingly appointing a Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) to anchor the need to highlight climate change at the senior management level. This study aims to examine how CSO power and sustainability-based compensation influence climate reporting and carbon performance.

Using one of the largest data sets to date, consisting of 18,834 company years through the author’s observations, spanning an 11-year period (2011–2021) in 33 countries. This paper used quantitative methods – specifically, ordinal logistic regression estimation. This paper measures the level of climate change disclosure based on the carbon disclosure leadership methodology. Carbon performance is based on the intensity of carbon emissions (Scope 1, Scope 2), which is a quantitative and relatively more objective measure.

The results suggest that climate change disclosure continued to increase and the carbon emissions intensity of the companies in this study gradually decreased over the sample period. This paper finds that the presence of the CSO within the top management team has a positive and significant influence on the level of information on climate change of the companies in the sample. This finding confirms the idea that the managerial capacity of CSOs motivates the disclosure of climate change. The empirical results confirm that there are differences in the role that the CSO and sustainability-based compensation play in influencing the quality of climate information disclosure in developed and developing countries.

The recourse on a mixed theoretical framework, which highlights upper echelons theory, argues the understanding of the role of CSOs in explaining the relationship between climate change disclosure–carbon performance relationship. The novelty of the study lies in the approaches adopted to describe the quality of climate change disclosure. To control for endogeneity, this paper uses a difference-in-difference analysis by adding a firm to the Morgan Stanley Capital International index as an exogenous shock.