ABSTRACT Leveraging data on firms operating in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and a novel measure of family ties among firm executives, we show the quantitative importance of kinship ties for female executives in settings and industries characterised by low female representation. Our findings suggest that when economic incentives motivate male executives to recruit female candidates, kinship ties can help women penetrate what we call ‘the glass web’—a new way to understand the proverbial glass ceiling of invisible barriers that have historically excluded women from business leadership. We combine our executive‐level data with administrative employer–employee matched data for Saudi Arabia to show that greater representation of women among firm executives, with or without a kinship tie, is associated with more gender‐equal outcomes at the firm, including greater female employee share and smaller gender wage gaps.

ABSTRACT Gender equality in the economy is a key issue on the political agenda. Western countries have long pursued policies promoting free competitive markets, with the EU focusing on harmonisation for market freedom. This study examines how economic freedom impacts gender equality using an instrumental variable approach. Results reveal mixed effects: economic freedom can hinder gender equality in areas, such as work, education and power, but foster it in income and financial resources. Moreover, the same aspect of economic freedom can simultaneously advance gender equality in some domains whereas hindering it in others, highlighting the complexity of these dynamics. The results of the paper contribute to reduce inequalities within countries and to build inclusive economic systems.

ABSTRACT This study explores how gender is associated with microfinance loan performance in Afghanistan, a conservative and conflict‐affected society. We use data from over 9500 borrowers across Taliban‐ and government‐controlled areas for the period from January 2017 to February 2020, before the 2021 Taliban takeover. We analyse how borrower and loan officer gender are related to loan outcomes. Contrary to prevailing literature, our findings reveal that female borrowers exhibit lower loan performance compared to male borrowers, which we attribute to structural barriers such as restricted mobility, limited business opportunities and poor access to education. Female loan officers are associated with higher loan performance on average. A key finding is evidence for a matching channel: female borrowers are substantially less likely to default when paired with female loan officers, and this effect is particularly pronounced in government‐controlled areas. The results highlight the value of gender‐sensitive staffing and borrower‐officer assignment policies for microfinance in challenging environments.

ABSTRACT This paper examines how a brief armed conflict affects firm performance and survival, using evidence from Georgia following the August 2008 war. Combining firm‐level survey data with geolocated information on conflict events, military installations and bank branches, the analysis reveals heterogeneous firm responses. In the short run, firms located near conflict events experienced smaller declines in sales and sales per permanent, full‐time employee than nonexposed firms, despite substantial losses among young firms and exporters closest to the bombing. By 2011, surviving exposed firms outperformed nonexposed survivors in sales and labour productivity. At the same time, local armed conflict exposure increased firm exit, particularly among exporters, pointing to selective exit, reduced competition and transport disruptions as mechanisms driving the results.

ABSTRACT Access to legal services is argued to be an integral part of inclusive growth. This paper examines how litigation demand responds to an increased supply of legal professionals, that is, supply‐induced litigation, in a developing economy using a newly constructed city‐level panel dataset of litigation rate, law firms and socioeconomic variables from China throughout 2013–23. Our empirical analysis reaches several conclusions. We find that an increase in the number of law firms has a positive and significant effect on the litigation rate, which supports supply‐induced litigation. This result is robust to the instrument variable (IV) estimation and several robustness checks. Further, we find that the supply‐induced litigation potentially attributes to a better matching between lawyers and clients. Finally, we find that supply‐induced litigation is more pronounced for cities with higher social trust. In other words, formal and informal institutions, such as social trust, are complementary in driving the use of the judicial system.

ABSTRACT This article investigates financial capabilities and the role of conversion factors in the financial situation of segregated Roma families. We examine how these strategies are linked to stigmatisation and spatial segregation, pushing forward existing theories on financial capabilities of segregated Roma people. Building on a long‐term collaborative process, we conducted semi‐structured interviews with current and former residents of two urban segregated Roma neighbourhoods in Hungary, complemented with the data generated during our long‐term observations and recorded in our research diaries. Our results show that if the aim is to promote the social inclusion of extremely poor, stigmatised and segregated Roma, it is more appropriate to focus on conversion factors emphasised by the concept of financial capability, mainly related to segregation, poverty and stigmatisation, rather than on the individual factors. Exploring these factors can lead to a meaningful understanding of the situation of the people concerned and to the formulation and development of policies that can support their financial inclusion and well‐being.

ABSTRACT Using a large firm‐level dataset from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys, covering 145 countries between 2006 and 2024 and comprising over 158,900 observations, we examine whether informal competition—defined as competition from informal firms—affects the credit constraints of registered firms worldwide. Estimations, based on the instrumental variable method, indicate that registered firms competing with informal firms are significantly more likely to be credit‐constrained than those that do not. This finding is highly robust. The detrimental effect of informal competition diminishes with greater managerial experience, firm age, productivity, self‐financing capacity and banking accessibility, as well as with stronger structural factors such as real GDP per capita, domestic credit to the private sector, regulatory quality, rule of law and control of corruption. However, the effect of informal competition increases with higher income inequality and firm size. Sales, productivity and informal payments are key transmission channels.

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the demographic consequences of militarisation in transition economies by analysing the effect of armed forces size on fertility rates across 15 post‐Soviet countries from 1992 to 2022. Using panel fixed effects and two‐stage least squares (FE‐2SLS) with U.S. military aid as an instrument, we find that military expansion exerts a significant negative impact on fertility. Mediation analysis suggests that societal anxiety serves as a key channel. A case study of Russia highlights how sanctions and conflict further accelerate fertility decline. The findings underscore how institutional legacies of conscription shape demographic outcomes in transitional settings.

ABSTRACT In the first two quarters of 2013, the Georgian government introduced and fully implemented a universal health care (UHC) programme covering all those not yet publicly or privately insured. Using panel estimation methods and difference‐in‐differences estimation with synthetic treatment and control groups, we estimate the effect of the UHC programme on the level of out‐of‐pocket (OOP) health expenditures of households. The programme saved households an economically and statistically significant monthly amount of 105 Georgian Laris (64 USD then) per household, amounting to approximately 16% of the average household monthly income at the time. The reduction in OOP payments is almost entirely attributed to people utilising essential, emergency, and life‐saving health services. About half of the resulting increase in household disposable income has been rechannelled to other non‐health expenditures such as transportation, education, clothing, and other household items. All in all, the UHC programme is hypothesised to have improved the overall health status and the quality of life in the country.

ABSTRACT Growth remains the holy grail of economics. Although our understanding of long‐term growth dynamics has advanced considerably, the question of why some countries grow faster than others continues to be a critical area of empirical inquiry. This paper represents the first comprehensive attempt in literature to examine the relationship between hard power, soft power and economic growth across a broad panel of countries. Although previous research has explored the connection between military power and economic growth, the findings regarding this relationship remain inconclusive. Additionally, there is a notable gap in literature concerning the economic effects of soft power. To address this gap, we utilise the multidimensional Global Soft Power Index (GSPI) developed by Cevik and Padilha and apply a range of econometric methodologies to ensure a robust and granular analysis. Our findings indicate that soft power, as measured by the GSPI, exerts a statistically significant and positive impact on long‐term economic growth. In contrast, military spending appears to have no significant effect and is negatively correlated with growth. Importantly, the economic influence of soft power is more pronounced in developing countries than in advanced economies. Disaggregating the GSPI reveals that certain dimensions—Commercial Prowess, Culture, Digital Footprint and Global Reach—have a stronger effect on growth than others, such as Education and Institutions, likely reflecting the slower‐moving nature of the latter components. Overall, the results highlight the critical role of soft power in shaping growth trajectories, particularly in contexts where traditional growth drivers are less entrenched.