Trade dependence and stock market reaction to the Russia-Ukraine war

Using data from 83 countries, we show that the decline in the value of stock market indices in response to the Russia-Ukraine war was sharper in countries that have stronger trade ties (both exports and imports) with Russia and Ukraine. We also find the relationship between trade dependency and market drop is weaker in countries with more trade openness

Growing up in the Iran-Iraq war and preferences for strong defense

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between individuals’ experiences of the Iran–Iraq war (1980–1988) during early adulthood (18–25 years) and their preference for strong national defense forces and their willingness to fight for Iran (in the event of another war). Using the World Values Survey data, we provide evidence that Iranians who experienced the war during their early adulthood give top priority to strong defense forces. However, we find that there is no significant association between individuals’ experiences of the war during early adulthood and their willingness to fight for Iran. The results are robust to controlling for a set of individuals’ socioeconomic and political characteristics as well as different age cohorts. Finally, we show that our results are not influenced by age cohort effect

International tourists' spending on traveling inside a destination : does local happiness matter?

This paper investigates the travel spending behaviour of international tourists inside happier destinations. The empirical model is tested for 58 developed and developing countries. Applying various estimation methods and two different measures of nations’ happiness, the results show that tourists spend more on travelling inside a destination where local people are happier. In addition, we find that foreign tourists’ expenditures on travelling are higher in countries with a higher quality of travel infrastructure and larger numbers of World Heritage sites. Our results provide some implications for tourism planners and authorities

Globalization and the outbreak of COVID-19 : an empirical analysis

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the extension of globalization and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) case fatality rate (CFR) calculated on 28 July 2020 in more than 150 countries. Our regression analyses show that countries with higher levels of socio-economic globalization are exposed to higher levels of CFR. The positive association between the level of globalization of countries and their COVID-19 fatality rate remains robust, controlling for cross-country differences in economic development and demographics, health care costs, health care capacity, quality of governance and continental dummies

On real estate market transparency : the relationship with ICT trade and investment

The relationship between information and communication technology (ICT) investment, ICT trade, and real estate market transparency is examined in this paper. National-level bi-annual data from a sample of advanced and emerging market economies for the period 2004–2018 underpins this work. The regression analyses suggest greater levels of capital investment in ICT and ICT trade are associated with increased transparency in the real estate market. The effect is more pronounced in emerging economies than in advanced ones. Real estate market transparency is also higher in contexts having less restrictions on foreign real estate investment, coupled with corruption controls. These findings also align with existing literature inferring that countries with common law traditions are often more transparent than those from civil law origins

The effects of economic policy and political uncertainties on economic activities

This paper explores the dynamic effects of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and political stability (PS) on business fixed investment (BFI), real estate activities (RE), financial market activities (FIN) and patent applications (PAT) using annual data from 19 major high-income and emerging economies from 1996 to 2016. By applying panel vector autoregression (PVAR) and dynamic least squares (DOLS) methods, the results show that a positive shock to EPU triggers a negative response from BFI, RE, FIN and PAT in the short-run. In addition, I find that higher levels of EPU significantly decrease BFI, RE and FIN in the long-run. The findings also suggest that BFI, RE and PAT respond positively to a shock in PS in the short-run and there is a positive, long-run relationship between PS, RE and FIN

Urban house prices and investments in small and medium-sized industrial firms : evidence from provinces of Iran

Using data from provinces of Iran from 2005 to 2016 and applying panel cointegrating regressions, I find that increases in real house prices have a negative and statistically significant effect on investments in small and medium-sized industrial firms. There are at least three possible mechanisms through which increases in house prices adversely affect industrial entrepreneurship. They (1) generate housing construction investment opportunities with high returns, (2) attract many urban adults with tertiary education to the real estate brokerage industry, and (3) encourage people to save more to buy houses (which is one of the prerequisites for marriage in Iran)

Sub-dimensions of consumer confidence and outgoing tourist expenditures

This paper explores the relationship between the sub-dimensions of consumer confidence (financial situation, general economic situation, unemployment expectations and savings) and the various categories of outgoing tourist expenditures (accommodation, entertainment, excursion, food, shopping and travel within the country) across 22 European countries. Due to the low frequency of national time series data, the panel data regressions are used to estimate the relationships between the variables. The findings show a positive association between consumer confidence and outgoing tourist expenditures. More specifically, we find that tourists with low levels of confidence in their employment are likely to spend less on excursion and shopping activities, while tourists with higher levels of confidence in their future savings spend more on entertainment, excursions and shopping

Housing wealth, financial wealth and consumption expenditure : the role of consumer confidence

The objective of this paper is to examine the role of consumer confidence on the relationship between two forms of wealth—housing and financial—and four categories of consumption expenditure, which include total consumption, service, durable goods and nondurable goods consumption. This paper uses U.S. quarterly data from 1978 to 2012 for its analysis. Applying the FMOLS estimation method, the results show that consumer confidence has a positive effect on the association between housing wealth and consumption expenditure, whereas its effect on the association between financial wealth and consumption expenditure is negative. The implications of these results are discussed

Corruption and outbound business travels

This article investigates the effect of corruption on growth of outbound business travels (OBT), after controlling other relevant determinants of demands for OBT. The model is empirically tested for 62 countries from 2007 to 2016. Using a panel fixed effects estimation method, the results show that higher levels of corruption lead to the growth of OBT. We also find that the impact of corruption on OBT is more apparent in emerging economies than developed countries