Purpose-This paper aims to investigate the effect of political connections on earnings quality by simultaneously controlling the firm characteristics; to test whether Pakistani firms' ownership, specifically family ownership, plays a significant role in political connections-earnings quality association; to draw a conclusion about the agency theory in the context of Pakistan.

This paper examines the sustainability of the current account imbalance for four ASEAN countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand) over the 1961-1999 period.To this end, we utilize the intertemporal budget constraint (IBC) model to explain the behavior of the current account in these countries. The analysis is based on various unit root and cointegration procedures including those allowing for a structural break to deal with the major shortcomings of previous studies. The empirical results indicate clearly that for all countries, except Malaysia, current account deficits were not on the long-run steady state in the pre-crisis era. This leads us to conclude that the current accounts of these countries were unsustainable and did not move towards external account equilibrium. Moreover, the persistent current account deficits might serve as a leading indicator of financial crises. In contrast, we find strong comovement between inflows and outflows in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand in the period including the post-crisis years, while Malaysia was on an unsustainable path. This is because macroeconomic performance of most of the ASEAN countries has changed dramatically since the onset of the Asian crisis in mid-1997. The evidence suggests that action to prevent large appreciations should have been taken prior to the 1997 crisis. JEL classification: F30, F32

This paper proposes a Markov-switching model to assess the sustainability of fiscal policy in Malaysia for the period 1980-2014. Our results indicate the policymakers in the past have followed a sustainable fiscal policy, except during the brief periods of economic difficulty. The empirical analysis reveals that the government should cut the deficits only if they exceed a certain level, to ensure their sustainability in the long-run. Specifically, we find that after public debt exceeds a certain threshold level (above 55% of the gross domestic product), it is negatively correlated with economic activity. In addition to the threshold effect, we confirm the presence of a unidirectional causal relation between debt and growth.

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of perceived quality on intention to revisit coffee concept shops among regular and irregular consumers. Specifically, the framework developed by Pine and Gilmore (2000) is adopted to look into the effect of product, service and experience qualities on intention to revisit. Design/methodology/approach-The explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was used to articulate the intention of consumers to revisit coffee concept shops. A preliminary study was conducted to define regular and irregular consumers. Self-administered questionnaire was first administered before using interview to elicit more insights and triangulate the findings. Findings-The combination of both quantitative and qualitative findings show that the experiences of regular consumers at coffee concept shops include personal routine activities, while the experiences of irregular customers are composed of occasions with specific and collective purposes. While the intention to revisit of the former is related to the product and service quality, the intention of the latter is largely affected by its service and experience quality. Originality/value-Given the rapid rise of coffee concept shops in the developing markets, the use of a mixed-methods design provides more insights into the intention to revisit of the regular and irregular consumers. It underscores the importance for the organisations to know what really matters to the diverse consumers.

This study empirically investigates the role and the impact of foreign aid (ODA) on economic growth (GDP) using 95 developing countries as the sample.Here we also include foreign direct investment (FDI) and population (POP) as the control variables. The panel data results indicate that a U-shape relationship exists between foreign aid and economic growth (Wamboye, 2012;Gyimah-Brempong and Racine, 2014). Initially, foreign aid negatively impacts the countries' growth and over a period of time, it positively contributes to economic growth. Further, the results strongly support the view that both FDI and POP are more important determinants of GDP, implying that GDP is less likely to depend on ODA. Strengthening the legal framework would be essential for these countries while their overdependency on the influx of ODA might lead to negative impacts on the growth as a whole. Importantly, effective management of foreign aid would ensure the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) are achieved.

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This paper examines the twin deficits hypothesis in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand (ASEAN-4 countries). The major findings of this paper are: (1) Long run relationships are detected between budget and current account deficits. (2) We found that the Keynesian reasoning fits well for Thailand since a unidirectional relationship exists which runs from budget deficit to current account deficit. For Indonesia the reverse causation (current account targeting) is detected while the empirical results indicate that a bidirectional pattern of causality exists for Malaysia and the Philippines. (3) We also found support for an indirect causal relationship that runs from budget deficit to higher interest rates, and higher interest rates lead to the appreciation of the exchange rate and this leads to the widening of current account deficit. (4) The results of the variance decompositions and impulse response functions suggest that the consequences of large budget and current account deficits become noticeable only over the long run.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to contribute further on the twin deficits debate in a developing economy. Design/methodology/approach -The data for Thailand over three decades are used as a case study. Findings -The major findings are: first, a stable, long-run equilibrium relationship between fiscal deficit, interest rate, exchange rate, and current account was found. Second, the causal relationship between the two deficits runs from fiscal deficit to current account deficit. This evidence is supportive of the twin deficits hypothesis. Further econometric analysis reveals that the two financial variables (interest rate and exchange rate) act as intermediating variables -that is an increased fiscal deficit causes interest rate to rise, and this in turn puts pressure on the exchange rate. The appreciation of the domestic currency causes a current account deficit. Originality/value -The paper is of value by showing both direct and indirect channels to uncover the twin deficits phenomena. Based on a persistent profile response, it was found that the adjustment process may take as long as a year to complete.