Fixed-effects Regression Models Research Articles

Altruism and tax compliance: Unveiling the dual role of charitable giving and social norms in global tax evasion

This study investigates the relationship between altruistic behaviors and tax evasion, using panel data from 172 countries spanning 2011 to 2020. The analysis focuses on three dimensions of altruism—helping strangers, volunteering, and donating to charity—derived from the World Giving Index, while tax evasion is proxied by the size of the informal economy as estimated by the IMF. With a final sample of 1,103 country-year observations, the study employs a fixed effects regression model to account for unobserved, time-invariant heterogeneity across countries and global shocks over time. GDP per capita, sourced from the World Bank, is included as a control variable. The findings reveal a dual relationship: the percentage of individuals helping strangers is negatively correlated with tax evasion, suggesting that strong social norms and intrinsic motivations for altruistic behavior promote tax compliance. In contrast, the percentage of individuals donating to charity is positively correlated with tax evasion, indicating that charitable giving may sometimes rationalize non-compliance through mechanisms like the Crowding-Out Hypothesis or the Compensatory Altruism Hypothesis. Volunteering, however, shows no significant effect on tax evasion. These results underscore the complexity of the relationship between pro-social behaviors and tax compliance. Policymakers are encouraged to promote social norms that foster both altruism and tax compliance while carefully designing tax incentives for charitable giving to prevent unintended consequences. This study contributes to the literature by providing nuanced insights into the interplay between altruistic behaviors and tax evasion on a global scale, highlighting the importance of context in understanding compliance behaviors.

Language capital and grade repetition: evidence from nationally-representative survey data in India

ABSTRACT This paper studies the links between discrepancies in the language spoken at home and the medium of instruction at school and grade repetition using nationally representative sample surveys in India. Our sample consists of more than 100,000 students attending educational institutions. Using a fixed effects regression model, we find that language discrepancy is negatively associated with grade repetition among boys and is not statistically significant for girls. Subgroup analyses suggest that results are driven by urban, relatively wealthier households residing in Hindi-speaking states. Implications for policies such as the recently proposed National Education Policy (NEP) are discussed.

The Impact of Digital Inclusive Finance on Regional Economic Growth and Environmental Quality

China has prioritized high-quality development as a key goal in building a socialist modernized country. Currently, regional economic development faces challenges such as blocked factor flows, regional disparities, and environmental degradation, highlighting the need for coordinated economic and environmental progress. This paper explores how digital inclusive finance impacts regional economic development and environmental quality. Using panel data from 31 provinces (20122022) and a bidirectional fixed-effect regression model, the study finds that digital inclusive finance drives economic growth through technological innovation and enhances environmental quality via industrial upgrading. This research offers empirical evidence on the role of digital finance in regional development and provides policy insights for promoting green transformation and sustainable growth.

Housing Relocation and Residential Satisfaction After Relocation: Effects of Dwelling Condition Changes on Older Adults in the Community.

This study seeks to analyze the trajectories of residential satisfaction among older adults before and after relocation and explore the variability in the relationship between relocation and residential satisfaction based on changes in housing conditions during the relocation process. Utilizing a nationally representative longitudinal dataset of older adults (N=2718), this study employs individual-level fixed effect regression models to estimate the association between the timing of relocation and residential satisfaction. Stratified analyses are also conducted to explore how this association varies based on changes in housing conditions. Residential satisfaction tends to decrease before relocation, peaks at the time of relocation, and maintain higher levels as older adults adapt to their new environment. This adaptation process varies depending on changes in dwelling conditions during relocation, with transitions from poor to non-poor housing conditions positively affecting psychological responses, while moves from non-poor to poor conditions can lead to increased psychological burden and prolonged adjustment periods. Aging policies can prioritize programs that facilitate adjustment to new environments to improve residential satisfaction of older adults, thereby promoting healthy aging.

Nexus between corporate sustainable practices and sustainable development goals: Indian evidence

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the disclosure of sustainable development goals (SDGs) by Indian firms and to examine the association between sustainable business practices and the disclosure of SDGs. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on large Indian non-financial firms listed in Bombay Stock Exchange 200 for six years from 2016–2017 to 2021–2022. Sustainable business practices are measured using four important indicators - the quality of sustainability discourse, compliance with Global Reporting Initiative guidelines, adoption of the guidelines of the International Integrated Reporting Council and external assurance of published reports. Content analysis is used to compute the disclosure score of SDGs and corporate sustainability performance. The authors have used a fixed effects regression model followed by Tobit model and two-stage least square model to examine the association between sustainable business practices and the disclosure of SDGs. Findings The results indicate an increasing trend of disclosure of SDGs by Indian firms. The empirical findings suggest a positive impact of sustainable business practices on the SDGs disclosure after controlling for firm-specific and corporate governance variables. Among the components of corporate sustainability, social and environmental factors positively influence the SDGs. Originality/value The study is a noble attempt to enrich the extant literature by providing empirical evidence on the association between sustainable business practices and disclosure of SDGs considering four important indicators of sustainable practices. The findings are useful for theoretical and practical implications.

Breathing dirty air, struggling in school: The case of air pollution and Student Learning in Chile

AbstractAir pollution has been linked to various health problems in children, including respiratory and neurological issues. Existing research has also found that exposure to air pollution can affect children's cognitive ability and academic performance, with some studies showing a decrease in test scores and grade point averages associated with increased exposure to hazardous air pollution. This study examined the association between air pollution and children’s academic performance in Chile. This research addressed a critical gap in the literature by providing data from an understudied context and tracking children's academic performance at an individual level over time. We constructed a panel dataset that followed students from 1st to 8th grade and estimated their exposure to PM2.5, based on the distance of their school to air monitoring stations from elementary to middle school. We tracked students' academic performance using a longitudinal fixed-effects regression model to assess the relationship between their grade point average (GPA) and air pollution. The results revealed that, on average, an increase in the percentage of days exceeding different official air quality standards significantly affected students' annual GPA. The study also showed that academic performance among students from families with lower economic resources is disproportionately affected by air pollution. The findings underscore the pressing issue of environmental justice, highlighting that numerous students attend schools in the unhealthy environments of several Chilean cities that frequently bear the burden of socioeconomic disadvantage.

Etiology and correlates of alcohol misuse in early midlife.

Early midlife individuals (ages 30-40) experience demographic shifts that may influence the remainder of adult life. Although new or persistent alcohol misuse is common during this period, early midlife is understudied in alcohol use literature. We examined the heritability of alcohol misuse; the associations between alcohol misuse and sociodemographic factors, physical health, and well-being; and whether these associations were robust in cotwin comparisons. Participants were 1446 Finnish twin pairs and 748 nonpaired Finnish twins with mean age 34 years. The alcohol misuse index was a composite measure of frequency of use, intoxication, heavy episodic drinking, and alcohol problems assessed with the Malmö-modified Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test and the Rutgers Alcohol Problem Index. Early midlife correlates included relationship status and length, family formation, unemployment status, education level, self-rated health, pain, sleeping difficulties, life satisfaction, psychological health, and other substance use. We employed a sex-limitation model to estimate early midlife heritability. Linear and fixed effects regression models were used for individual and cotwin comparison analyses, respectively. Additive genetic (A) and unique environmental (E) components of alcohol misuse variance differed across sex (Females: A = 62%, E = 38%; Males: A = 49%, E = 51%). In individual-based analyses, higher scores on the alcohol misuse index were associated with lower relationship stability, financial situation, education level, self-rated health, physical fitness, life satisfaction and psychological health, and higher self-reported pain, sleep difficulties, unemployment rates and other substance use (R2 = 0.008-0.12). Associations remained significant in cotwin comparison analyses (R2 = 0.004-0.10) except for financial situation and education level. There is evidence of sex differences in the etiological factors that influence early midlife drinking. After controlling for confounding familial factors, associations between alcohol misuse and poorer early midlife functioning largely remained, suggesting that alcohol misuse may play a role in poorer functioning across several outcomes.

Understanding change and differential updating of risk perceptions associated with illicit substance use: a panel study

While risk perceptions affect various health behaviors, there is insufficient knowledge about how they are formed and change over time surrounding illicit substance use. This study investigates the role of prior use, social influences, and media information on changes in the risk perceptions of expected susceptibility and severity of side effects in the context of the nonmedical use of prescription drugs for cognitive enhancement. It also examines differential updating by testing for the potential conditioning effects of prior use and self-control. We use a three-wave panel design (N = 8,377) with a nationwide random sample of adults in Germany. Fixed-effect regression models show that prior use and positive media information lower both risk perceptions, while negative information from others and the media produce increases. Rare users compared to non- and frequent users were more sensitive to new information obtained through others, thus showing stronger changes in risk perceptions. Moreover, self-control partially moderated the magnitude of changes in both risk perceptions, for example, regarding side effects reported in the media, which affected individuals with low self-control more strongly. In sum, the results indicate that personal and vicarious information affect the updating of risk perceptions, while partial evidence exists for differential updating.

Can farmers' digital literacy improve income? Empirical evidence from China.

This paper explore the impacts and mechanisms of digital literacy of farm households on income. The baseline regression of the impact of digital literacy of farm households on household income uses a fixed effects regression model, and the 2SLS regression model is used to address the endogeneity problem present in the model. The findings reveal that improving digital literacy among rural households significantly increases their family income, a result that remains robust even after considering endogeneity issues. Further examination of the mechanisms shows that enhancing digital literacy among rural households significantly improves their information acquisition capabilities and cognitive skills. It also deepens financial services, boosting the usage and engagement of rural households in digital financial activities, thereby enhancing family income levels. Facilitating rural residents' access to digital skills and tools to ride the digital economic wave, ensuring fair access, and achieving sustainable family income are of paramount significance for rural revitalization. It is also a crucial step in bridging the digital divide and promoting shared prosperity.

The estimation of health state utility values for psychological distress in Australia: Implications for future economic evaluations.

Psychological distress is a state of emotional suffering and discomfort that often manifests as anxiety, depression, or other mental health symptoms, impairing daily functioning, and hindering concentration, relationships, and work or school performance. We aimed to examine the disutility associated with psychological distress. We utilized longitudinal data obtained from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey. We measure health state utility values (HSUVs) using the short-form six-dimension utility index (SF-6D) and psychological distress using the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10). We employed a longitudinal fixed effects regression model to examine the effects of psychological distress on HSUVs. The results from fixed effects panel regression models indicate a negative effect of psychological distress on HSUVs. We found that moderate psychological distress (β = -0.057, 95% CI = -0.059, -0.055) and high psychological distress (β = -0.123, 95% CI = -0.126, -0.121) led to a significant reduction in HSUVs. These findings hold across different subsamples, such as age, gender, and race. By quantifying the reduction in HSUVs due to psychological distress, our study provides valuable data for future economic evaluations of healthcare interventions. The evidence generated from future economic evaluations will assist policymakers in making informed decisions about the most effective interventions for treating psychological distress.

The impact of credit ratings on international investment: Evidence from an emerging market

This study examines the influence of sovereign credit ratings on international investments in emerging markets, focusing on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI). Using data from 22 emerging economies spanning 1999 to 2019, we employ OLS and fixed-effects regression models to analyze how credit ratings affect investment flows and market volatility. The findings indicate that sovereign credit ratings significantly impact investor decisions, as these ratings serve as a key metric in assessing investment risk and potential. This research highlights the essential role of credit ratings in enhancing financial stability and promoting economic integration through foreign investments, with implications for growth and trade. The study provides novel insights for investors, policymakers, and rating agencies on the role of credit ratings in emerging market investments, contributing to a deeper understanding of their impact on global economic dynamics.

The Scale Goes Up, the Joy Goes Down? Investigating the Causal Effect of Body Weight on Happiness

Overweight and obesity represent significant public health challenges in many contemporary Western societies. In countries such as Germany, the majority of the population is classified as overweight. While being overweight is well-documented as a risk factor for adverse health outcomes, the relationship between overweight status and happiness remains less clear. This study investigates the impact of overweight and obesity on happiness, utilizing large-scale German panel data (N = 8,815) collected across ten survey waves. Employing fixed-effects regression models that account for relevant time-varying confounders—such as age, health, and employment status—I estimate the causal effect of body mass index (BMI) as a measure of overweight on happiness. The results indicate that being overweight, whether BMI is treated as a continuous or categorical variable, does not have a negative impact on happiness. These findings hold across both genders and all age groups. In some models or subgroups, even small positive associations between weight gain and happiness are observed, despite the exclusion of underweight individuals from the analyses. Further validation is provided by a random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM), which corroborates the initial findings and offers additional insights into the temporal dynamics of this relationship.

A Longitudinal Examination of Autism Services, Child Adaptive Functioning, and Parent Quality of Life during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The delivery of services to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was disrupted during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which may have affected child functioning and caregiver quality of life (QoL). This study examined changes in service intensity, child adaptive functioning, and caregiver QoL during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants were 146 caregivers (87% mothers) of children with ASD (M age = 8.22 years; SD = 4.21) who were invited to complete an online survey about service intensity, child functioning, and caregiver QoL at four time points between the summer of 2020 and the summer of 2021. Simple regressions indicated that child adaptive functioning and caregiver QoL increased over time after stay-at-home orders were lifted. Fixed effects regression models indicated that increases in service intensity were associated with concurrent increases in caregiver physical QoL. Decreases in child repetitive behaviors were associated with concurrent increases in caregiver social and environmental QoL. These findings suggest that children and their caregivers demonstrated resilience in the year after stay-at-home orders were lifted. Additionally,service intensity and child repetitive behaviors may impact caregiver QoL, making these variables areas of opportunity for stakeholders and professionals.

Care Labor and Family Income Inequality: How Childcare Costs Exacerbate Inequality among U.S. Families

Care infrastructures are essential for supporting families and enabling women’s participation in the labor market, but they also have implications for family income inequality. This article examines access to childcare services in the United States as a case study. We propose that market-priced childcare systems generate inequalities in how births affect mothers’ contributions to family income, because they constrain post-birth labor supply for lower-income women more than for higher-income women, and aggravate family income inequality as a result. Using the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) merged with state-level childcare prices, we estimate individual fixed-effects regression models for the consequences of births on family income and its proximate determinants: mothers’ labor supply and earnings, and partners’ labor supply and earnings. We find that childcare prices increase post-birth earnings losses for mothers without college degrees, but not for mothers with college degrees, and these losses are not compensated for by increases in partners’ earnings or by income transfers. As a result, childcare costs exacerbate family income gaps between partnered women with and without a college degree by 34 percentage points.

Digital financial inclusion, e-commerce development and entrepreneurial activity

While digital transformation has revolutionized financial services and commerce globally, the complex interplay between digital financial inclusion (DFI), e-commerce development, and entrepreneurial activity remains understudied, particularly in emerging economies. Prior research has largely focused on isolated effects of either digital finance or e-commerce on economic outcomes, overlooking their potential synergistic impact on new business creation. This study investigates how DFI influences entrepreneurial activity through e-commerce development in China, using panel data from 275 prefecture-level cities (2011−2021). Employing fixed-effects regression models and instrumental variable approaches, we find that DFI significantly enhances entrepreneurial activity, with stronger effects in non-central and non-provincial capital cities. The impact varies regionally: DFI's influence is most pronounced in Eastern China, where it works synergistically with human capital and trade openness, while in Central and Western regions, its effectiveness depends more on GDP and infrastructure development. Our findings demonstrate that e-commerce partially mediates DFI's impact on entrepreneurship, suggesting that digital financial services catalyze new business creation both directly and by fostering e-commerce development. These results provide novel insights for policymakers seeking to leverage digital transformation for inclusive economic growth, highlighting the importance of tailoring digital financial initiatives to regional economic contexts.

Intelligent manufacturing and corporate green transformation

The rapid evolution of intelligent manufacturing technologies presents opportunities and challenges for corporate environmental sustainability. Although these advancements offer potentially improved efficiency and reduced environmental impact, their actual effect on firms' green transformation remains understudied, particularly in the Chinese market. Hence, this research fills this gap by focusing on the mediating roles of financing constraints and knowledge diversification. Utilizing a comprehensive dataset of 18,390 firm-year observations from Chinese A-share listed companies between 2007 and 2022, we employ fixed-effects regression models and mediation analyses to examine these relationships. Our findings reveal a notable positive impact of intelligent manufacturing on green transformation, partially mediated by reduced financing constraints and increased knowledge diversification. Furthermore, we uncover important heterogeneities across firm lifecycle stages and ownership structures, with mature firms and state-owned enterprises benefiting more from intelligent manufacturing in their green transformation efforts. These results contribute to the growing literature on sustainable Industry 4.0 and offer valuable insights for policymakers and corporate leaders seeking to leverage technological advancements for environmental sustainability.

Public Spending and Inclusive Growth in Developing Asia

This paper examines the impact of government spending on inclusive growth in developing Asia, focusing on fiscal redistribution through education, health, and social benefits. Using panel data from 16 countries over the period 1970–2017, we apply a fixed-effects logistic regression model to assess the likelihood of inclusive growth episodes. Our findings indicate that fiscal redistribution, particularly through targeted health and education spending, significantly enhances the chances of achieving inclusive growth. The results also suggest that redistributive spending helps reduce income inequality, ensuring that the benefits of economic growth are more widely shared. We further explore the practical implications of these findings through case studies of China, India, and Vietnam, demonstrating how effective government spending can foster inclusive growth. The paper highlights the importance of well-targeted fiscal policies to support sustainable and equitable development in the post-COVID recovery.

Analyzing the adoption of nutrition-sensitive carp-SIS polyculture technology: evidence from a case study in Bangladesh

IntroductionSmall indigenous species (SIS) of fish are rich in micronutrients that are essential to combat the existing malnutrition in Bangladesh. However, their availability is constantly decreasing due to gradual environmental degradation making their availability irregular and hence expensive in the market. Integrating SIS with carps in homestead ponds is being promoted as a form of nutrition-sensitive aquaculture to enhance both production and consumption of these nutrient-rich species. Various improved pond management techniques (IPMTs) are suggested to boost the nutrition-sensitive carp-SIS polyculture.ObjectivesThis study examines the trends and factors influencing the adoption of IPMTs using the sustainable livelihood framework (SLF) approach. We address the following three key questions: (i) What are the trends in production and consumption of fish, in particular SIS from homestead ponds? (ii) Have farm households adopted or disadopted IPMTs over time? (iii) What are the determinants of adoption and disadoption of IPMTs?MethodsBased on primary data of 234 households from Barishal district from 2014 and 2022, we perform significance tests to compare project and non-project households in 2014 versus 2022 and apply fixed effects Poisson regression and fixed effects negative binomial regression models to identify household decisions to adopt the IPMTs.Results and conclusionQuantitative survey results indicate a significant increase in the production and consumption of SIS over time. In 2014, the project households exhibited adoption rates of 60% or more for various IPMTs such as stocking of fast-growing species, pre-stocking liming, pond dike construction, fertilizer application, stocking of high quality fish seeds, aquatic weed control, and turbidity management. However, by 2022, some of these IPMTs were disadopted by project households and only a few techniques, including providing sunlight exposure to ponds, pre-stocking liming, and supplementary feeding, were more widely used. Additionally, many non-project households also increased their adoption rates of IPMTs significantly. The fixed effects regression model shows that adoption is positively influenced by the number of household members participating in aquaculture, size of the pond, sole ownership of the pond and the number of years household has been involved in aquaculture. Follow-up activities such as monitoring and training of the project beneficiaries and government support are recommended to support long-term adoption of the IPMTs.

Does Intellectual Capital Influence Firm's Financial Performance in Bangladesh?

This paper aimed to find the effects of intellectual capital and its components on firms’ financial performance in Bangladesh. A sample of 100 firms comprised of 48 manufacturing, 21 services, and 31 banking companies was studied for five years from 2017 to 2021, setting 500 firm-year observations. Data was collected purposively from secondary sources, such as annual reports of sampled companies. The robust fixed-effect regression model using STATA 14.2 software was applied to test the hypothesis due to autocorrelation and heteroscedasticity problems. The regression results documented that overall IC, human capital efficiency (HCE), and capital employed efficiency (CEE) positively and significantly enhanced the ROA and ROE of the firms. However, structural capital efficiency (SCE) and relational capital efficiency (RCE) negatively and insignificantly influenced the same. The study contributes to resource-based theory using econometric methods to extend the samples of both financial and non-financial companies. This study helps investors, managers, policy-makers, governments, and accounting regulatory bodies regarding the utilization pattern of invisible and tangible resources in Bangladeshi firms.

The motivating effect of positive social emotions on digital transformation of manufacturing enterprises–evidence from financial news and public opinion

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the impact of digital transformation on positive social emotions within manufacturing enterprises and examines the moderating effects of management tone and marketing capabilities on this relationship. This research uses a panel fixed-effect regression model to empirically examine the impact of positive social emotions on the digital transformation of manufacturing enterprises from 2016 to 2020 based on panel data of Chinese A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen. The results indicate that social positive emotions significantly contribute to the digital transformation of manufacturing enterprises. The effect of social positive emotions on the digital transformation of manufacturing enterprises is strongly heterogeneous in terms of differences in enterprise attributes and geographical differences. Further analysis reveals that marketing capability and corporate executive tone, directly or indirectly, both have a considerable positive moderating effect on the aforementioned mechanism. In contrast, innovation capability has little moderating influence. In order to better regulate external positive social emotions to promote digital transformation, manufacturing enterprises need to emphasise management tone and enhance their marketing capabilities. These might facilitate companies in utilising additional social resources, strengthen internal strategic digital transformation decisions, and advance the development of digital transformation in China's manufacturing sector.