Whistleblowing and corporate governance: Accidental allies or lifetime partners?

This paper discusses various issues of whistleblowing, from imposing liability on any employee for failing to act when faced with any corporate wrongdoing, to exploring the legislative protection that would be available to him, should he decide to do so. Whistleblowing has long been seen as a terrible thing to engage in, offering little or no benefit to the whistleblower involved. However, several key legislations, such as the United States Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002, the United Kingdom’s Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998, along with Malaysia’s very own Capital Market Services Act 2007, show that whistleblowing has come a long way. All these Acts, while conceived for different purposes, all share common traits, to recognize and legitimatize the act of whistleblowing and to provide sufficient protection to whistleblowers. All this is done with the hope that the stigma that is frequently associated with whistleblowing is removed, in order to encourage more employees to bring to light corporate misconduct, as well as to encourage more voluntary whistleblowing in order to promote and enhance transparency and accountability in corporate governance

AN INVESTIGATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP OF EXTERNAL PUBLIC DEBT WITH BUDGET DEFICIT, CURRENT ACCOUNT DEFICIT, AND EXCHANGE RATE DEPRECIATION IN DEBT TRAP AND NON-DEBT TRAP COUNTRIES

One can treat budget deficit as the mother of public debt because appearance of the former usually leads to the creation of later. However, in case of external public debt ceteris paribus current account deficit and exchange rate depreciation also come into play and show their significant relationship with it. The literature shows mostly descriptive approach on the subject however this study designs a model wherein the relationship of external public debt with budget deficit, current account deficit, and exchange rate depreciation are empirically tested. The study is dichotomy that covers empirical analysis of panels of a group of six “Debt Trap Countries (DTC)” namely as, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Thailand and eight “Non Debt Trap Countries (NDTC)” as Bangladesh, Fiji, Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, and Singapore, of Asian Pacific Developing Countries (APDC). Findings showed a positive relationship of external public debt (EPD) with budget deficit (BD), current account deficit (CAD), and exchange rate depreciation (ERD). However, their strength of relationship varies in DTC and NDTC. A stronger coefficient of EPD, BD, and ERD indicated an explosive borrowing, a higher demand of external public debt, and heavy utilization of foreign exchange while a lower coefficient of CAD signaled for the diversion of borrowed funds towards adjustment in current account in case of DTC. Relatively a lower coefficient of EPD, BD, and ERD indicated less borrowing, less demand of debt, and less utilization of foreign exchange while a higher coefficient of CAD suggested that borrowed funds were not diverted towards adjustment in current account in NDTC. This signaled a prudent public debt management in NDTC as compared to DTC. An empirical attempt under the ecology of dichotomy is the main contribution of this study

Causal Relationship between Foreign Institutional Investments, Exchange Rate and Stock Market Index i.e. Sensex in India: an Empirical Analysis

Since the global crisis (2008) emerged in the world economy, the inflows of foreign investors increased in developing countries and India was not the exception in terms of huge investment by foreign investors. India’s capital market recognized as an emerging market in the world and growing fast since the economic liberalization and globalization in 1991. Since 1993, when liberalization policies came in to effect and Indian market opened for foreign investment, the FIIs become the driving force for the overall development of economy as well as pose threat in the development. This paper attempts to analyze the impact of currency fluctuations on the investment by the foreign investment investors, for analyzing the impact and causal relationship, Augmented Dickey-Fuller test and Granger Causality test has been applied, and for analyzing FIIs role in the development of Indian capital market linear regression model has been used. After applying the Granger Causality test, we found that FII granger causes Exchange rate. As far as causality relationship is concerned, a unidirectional causality or one-way causality is found from FII towards exchange rate. As far as the causal relationship between the FIIs and SENSEX, FII are only responsible for up to 45.4%. This means that whatever changes have happened in the SENSEX for period under study the FI investments are responsible up to 45.4%. This implies that there are many other macro-economic factors which have indirectly affected the SENSEX in India. Keywords: FIIs, SENSEX, INRUSD, BSE, Volatility, GDP, RBI, FDICausal Relationship between Foreign Institutional Investments, Exchange Rate and Stock Market Index i.e. Sensex in India: an Empirical Analysi

IMPACT OF FINANCIAL GROWTH ON THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF OMAN

Purpose of the study: This paper aims to empirically test the long and short-run effects of financial development on the economic growth of Oman. Methodology: This paper has applied the Unit root test, ARDL Bound Test for Cointegration, CUSUM, and CUSUMSQ Test for testing of hypotheses. The data used to test the relationship between financial development and economic growth covers the period from 1980 to 2017. Main Findings: The major finding of the study suggested that the financial development variables measured in the research influence the economic growth in Oman.  Applications of the Study: This study can be useful to assess the strength of the empirical link between the financial sector and economic growth in Oman as one of the oil-exporting states of the Middle East Region, where such studies are inadequate. The novelty of the Study: The finding of the study with an addition to the existing literature by incorporating the new variables like employment or poverty in the existing model provides new insight on the financial development of Oman. Limitations and forward of the Study: The study has considered a set of data which in general acts as a catalyst for economic development in a particular country.  Implications of the Study: The outcome of the study suits the nature of the country and its socio-economic conditions. The outcomes of the study will not be suitable for every country and may result in spurious outcomes