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This paper investigates the probable differential impact of the confirmed cases of COVID-19 on the equities markets of G7 and Nordic countries to ascertain possible interdependencies, diversification and safe haven prospects in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic over the short-, intermediate- and long-term horizons.

The authors apply a unique methodology in a denoised frequency-domain entropy paradigm to the selected equities markets (Li et al. 2020).

The authors’ findings reinforce the operability of the entrenched market dynamics in the COVID-19 pandemic era. The authors divulge that different approaches to fighting the pandemic do not necessarily drive a change in the deep-rooted fundamentals of the equities market, specifically for the studied markets. Except for an extreme case nearing the end (start) of the short-term (intermediate-term) between Iceland and either Denmark or the US equities, there exists no potential for diversification across the studied markets, which could be ascribed to the degree of integration between these markets.

The authors’ findings suggest that politicians should pay closer attention to stock market fluctuations as well as the count of confirmed COVID-19 cases in their respective countries since these could cause changes to market dynamics in the short-term through investor sentiments.

The authors measure the flow of information from COVID-19 to G7 and Nordic equities using the entropy methodology induced by the Improved Complete Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition with Adaptive Noise (ICEEMDAN), which is a data-driven technique. The authors employ a larger sample period as a result of this, which is required to better comprehend the subtleties of investor behaviour within and among economies – G7 and Nordic geographical blocs – which largely employed different approaches to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors’ focus is on diverging time horizons, and the ICEEMDAN-based entropy would enable us to measure the amount of information conveyed to account for large tails in these nations' equity returns. Furthermore, the authors use a unique type of entropy known as Rényi entropy, which uses suitable weights to discern tailed distributions. The Shannon entropy does not account for the fact that financial assets have fat tails. In a pandemic like COVID-19, these fat tails are very strong, and they must be accounted for.

This study investigates information flow of market constituents and global indices at multi-frequencies.

The study’s findings were obtained using the Improved Complete Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition with Adaptive Noise (I-CEEMDAN)-based cluster analysis executed for Rényi effective transfer entropy (RETE).

The authors find that significant negative information flows among sustainability equities (SEs) and conventional equities (CEs) at most multi-frequencies, which exacerbates diversification benefits. The information flows are mostly bi-directional, highlighting the importance of stock markets' constituents and their global indices in portfolio construction.

The authors advocate that both SE and CE markets are mostly heterogeneous, revealing some levels of markets inefficiencies.

The empirical literature on CEs is replete with several dynamics, revealing their returns behaviour for diversification purposes, leaving very little to know about the returns behaviour of SE. Wherein, an avalanche of several initiatives on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) enjoin firms to operate socially responsible, but investors need to have a clear reason to remain sustainable into the foreseeable future period. Accordingly, the humble desire of investors is the formation of a well-diversified portfolio and would highly demand stocks to the extent that they form a reliable portfolio, especially, amid SEs and/or CEs.

本研究擬審查多頻率的及為市場成份的信息流和全球指數。

研究人員使用基於改良完全集合經驗模態分解自適應噪聲(Improved Complete Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition with Adaptive Noise)的聚類分析法,取得Rényi有效轉移熵,藉此得到研究結果。

我們發現、於大部份多頻率,在持續性股票和傳統股票間有顯著的負信息流動,這會增加多樣化的益處。這些信息流大部份是雙向的,這強調了股票市場成份及其全球指數在構建投資組合上的重要性。

我們認為持續性股票市場和傳統股票市場大多為異質市場,這顯示了市場的低效率,而且這低效率的程度頗大。

關於傳統股票的實證性文獻裡是充滿了變革動力的,這顯示了它們以多樣化為目的的回報行為。這使我們對關於持續性股票的回報行為、認識變得實在太少了。於此,大量的企業社會責任的新措施不斷提醒各公司、要本著企業社會責任的理念去營運;但投資者需清晰明白他們為何需在可見的將來保持可持續性。因此,他們卑微的願望是一個較好的多樣化投資組合得以形成,故此他們高度要求股票要有組成可靠投資組合的性質和能力,特別是在持續性股票和/或傳統股票當中。

The study aims to assess the interplay between financial globalization, effective governance and economic growth in sub-Saharan African (SSA) economies.

This study uses the Generalized Method of Moment Estimation and the Panel Quantile Regression techniques to analyze how financial globalization and governance impact sub-Saharan African economies.

The results show that governance is vital to the region's economic development. In order to achieve significant growth, sub-Saharan African economies must prioritize actions that promote good governance.

The study is limited to sub-Saharan African economies.

It is crucial for the sub-Saharan Africa economies to concentrate on strengthening governance frameworks in order to realize its full economic potential because improvements in governance quality would have a favorable effect on economic growth.

The findings indicate that both capital inflows and governance dynamics are essential for fostering economic growth in SSA economies. Also, balancing globalization's benefits with effective governance is crucial for promoting sustainable growth in SSA.

This paper fills a gap in literature by using the KOF financial globalization index to assess the impact of financial globalization and governance on economic growth in sub-Saharan African economies.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the interdependence between economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and business cycles within and among six emerging market economies (EMEs) from January 1999 to December 2018.

This study adopts the wavelet multiple correlations and wavelet multiple cross-correlation (WMCC) based on the maximal overlap discrete transform estimator. This methodology simultaneously investigates how two or more time series variables move together continuously at both time and frequency domains.

The empirical results show that business cycles comove with EPU for both intra- and inter-country analysis, with the long term showing the greatest degree of interdependence. In intra-country comparisons, EPU has a positive correlation with consumer price index and a negative correlation with share price index. According to the WMCC results, EPU does not have any leading or lagging power within each EME, but rather import has both lead and lag power. The inter-country WMCC results are all significant, with Korea’s EPU leading/following all EMEs across all scales.

This study contributes to the ongoing debate about what causes business cycles to comove by investigating business cycle indicators (leader/follower) using a robust wavelet methodology. The authors propose new variables that can clearly reflect the outcome of economic policy actions and translate information about EPU shocks. The inclusion of the variables has altered the understanding of the relationship between EPU and business cycle fluctuations. Policymakers also gain new insights into the trends and patterns of EPU and business cycles, which will help them formulate and implement fiscal and monetary policies more effectively.

This study aims to investigate the amount and direction of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) spillover among six emerging market economies (EMEs), and to also ascertain arguments on the increased volatilities of uncertainty in most EMEs.

This study adopts a recent methodology developed by Baruník and Krehlík’s (2018) methodology to measure pairwise, composite and net spillover. This methodology helps investigate the size and direction of EPU spillover in EMEs. The unique feature of this methodology is its ability to capture frequency domain as well as time-frequency dynamics.

Inter-country static spillover connectedness among the EPU of the selected EMEs show that Korea-EPU is the main transmitter and recipient of spillover shocks among the EMEs across all frequency bands. The findings from this study also show evidence of spillover between EPU, GDP and SPX across the EMEs. The time-varying total spillover index analysis shows evidence of overall connectedness across the selected EMEs. Overall connectedness is highest in the short term. We document that global economic and financial events intensify the volatility of the total spillover across the selected EMEs.

This study extends the literature on studies conducted on EMEs as studies on EPU spillover has mainly focused on advanced economies. To address the limitation of previous empirical studies that were unable to address the amount and direction of spillover from a country to other countries, this study offers new insight on country-specific spillover amounts and causal patterns “to” and “from” the selected EMEs. The findings throw more light on the network connectedness across EMEs and hence aids investors to undertake precise investment decisions and intelligently plan their portfolio diversification strategies. We then introduce two new variables to the analysis and record evidence of high connectedness between EPU, gross domestic product and share price index in all the frequency bands.

This paper aims to contribute to knowledge by investigating the return behaviour of seven global real estate investment trusts (REITs) with respect to the appropriate distributional fit that captures tail and shape characteristics. The study adds to the knowledge of distributional properties of seven global REITs by using the generalised lambda distribution (GLD), which captures fairly well the higher moments of the returns.

This is an empirical study with GLD through three rival methods of fitting tail and shape properties of seven REIT return data from January 2008 to November 2017. A post-Global Financial Crisis (GFC) (from July 2009) period fits from the same methods are juxtaposed for comparison.

The maximum likelihood estimates outperform the methods of moment matching and quantile matching in terms of goodness-of-fit in line with extant literature; for the post-GFC period as against the full-sample period. All three methods fit better in full-sample period than post-GFC period for all seven countries for the Region 4 support dynamics. Further, USA and Singapore possess the strongest and stronger infinite supports for both time regimes.

The REITs markets, however, developed, are of wide varied sizes. This makes comparison less than ideal. This is mitigated by a univariate analysis rather than multivariate one.

This paper is a reminder of the inadequacy of the normal distribution, as well as the mean, variance, skewness and kurtosis measures, in describing distributions of asset returns. Investors and policymakers may look at the location and scale of GLD for decision-making about REITs.

The novelty of this work lies with the data used and the detailed analysis and for the post-GFC sample.

The research on authentic leadership has recently become a priority in leadership literature. As policy-makers and practitioners seek evidence in addressing leadership malfeasance across organisations and the broader society. Hence, a growing body of evidence suggests that the authentic leadership construct is plagued with a lack of conceptual clarity, embodying philosophical ambiguity and demographic limitations. Consequently, the study provides crucial descriptions of authentic leadership within a developing economy context.

The study’s findings show that three perspectives were evident from the authentic leaders and followers in defining authentic leadership. Authentic leaders perceive the construct from dual perspectives while followers have a singular outlook. The first perspective provided by the authentic leaders focussed on their leadership and how the burden of the role influenced their approach. The second perspective linked authentic leadership to areas that improve organisational outcomes. An unconscious awareness of the necessities that support organisational performance underpins the descriptions by the leaders. Remarkably, followers provide the last perspective that emphasises the relational aspects of the authentic leader and how it influences them in their daily lives. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the study’s contributions and limitations before charting the path for future research.

This paper aims to present recently published resources on library instruction and information literacy providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering all library types.

This paper introduces and annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations, reports and other materials on library instruction and information literacy published in 2018.

The paper provides a brief description of all 422 sources, and highlights sources that contain unique or significant scholarly contributions.

The information may be used by librarians and anyone interested as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

With the rise in international construction projects, addressing the psychological health concerns of expatriate construction professionals (EXCPs) has become of paramount importance. Therefore, this study aims to identify and evaluate effective intervention measures to promote optimal psychological health and well-being in overseas working environments.

Intervention measures were identified through a comprehensive literature review. Subsequently, using a case study of Chinese international contractors, data were collected via a quantitative survey administered to EXCPs holding managerial positions in international construction projects. Fuzzy synthetic evaluation was employed to analyze the data.

The findings identified 23 intervention measures and 4 constructs, among them, measures focused on enhancing organizational justice and training practices offer the greatest potential for enhancing the psychological health and well-being during international assignments. Furthermore, the analysis showed that the overall criticality of the intervention measures to the international contractors is significant, suggesting that if put into practice, the psychological health and well-being of EXCPs can be significantly enhanced.

While prior research has explored intervention measures suitable for construction professionals working on domestic projects, little attention has been paid to EXCPs in the context of international construction projects. This study offers an initial exploration of the most crucial intervention measures and provides a valuable resource for policymakers and practitioners seeking to establish a psychologically healthy working environment for international construction projects.

This chapter offers a comprehensive review the literature on authentic leadership (AL). The authors employ a bibliometric approach to identify, classify, visualise and synthesise relevant scholarly publications and the work of a core group of interdisciplinary scholars who are key contributors to the research on AL. They review 264 journal articles, adopting a clustering technique to assess the central themes of AL scholarship. They identify five distinct thematic clusters: authenticity in the context of leadership; structure of AL; social perspectives on AL; dynamism of AL; and value perceptions of AL. Velt and Sinkovics assert that these clusters will help scholars of AL to understand the dominant streams in the literature and provide a foundation for future research.