This study investigates the determinants of timber trade from 21 Latin American countries to global markets over the period 1996–2023 using a gravity model framework. We focus in particular on roundwood, that is the dominant primary forest product in international trade, and we address the high prevalence of zero trade flows by estimating a Negative Binomial hurdle gravity model in a Bayesian setting, with posterior inference obtained via the Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation. Our study contributes to the literature by proposing a novel statistical methodology for gravity models and by providing insights into Latin America’s bidirectional timber trade. The results show that importer countries’ economic size significantly increases both the probability and the volume of roundwood trade, while exporter-side production capacity and forest endowments are key drivers of export intensity. Managed forestry plays an important role: a higher share of planted forests is positively associated with export volumes, suggesting scope for trade expansion without increasing pressure on natural forests. Climate-related natural disasters in importing countries increase the probability of trade, indicating growing demand for timber following extreme events. Institutional quality consistently enhances trade on both the extensive and intensive margins, while currency appreciation in exporter countries reduces competitiveness and trade flows. Finally, participation in selected trade agreements, particularly APEC, ITTA, and MERCOSUR, positively affects trade outcomes. These findings highlight the importance of sustainable forest management, institutional quality, macroeconomic stability, and context-specific trade agreements in strengthening Latin America’s position in global timber markets, while mitigating deforestation risks and increasing resilience to climate-related shocks. • First comprehensive study of Latin American roundwood trade (1996–2023). • Bayesian Negative Binomial hurdle gravity model with INLA in timber trade. • Importer demand, exporter capacity, forest endowments, and management drive intensity. • Institutions, exchange rates, disasters, and trade deals shape trade margins.

Towards sustainable development and net-zero emissions in BRICS: Empirical perspectives on renewable and fossil fuel energy consumption, green technological innovation, and institutional quality

Corruption and IPO underpricing: A global perspective

Implementation and service impact of anti-amyloid therapy in a psychiatry-led dementia care program: Real-world evidence from a Japanese regional dementia center.

The increasing vulnerability of African nations to climate change underscores the need to identify the institutional, structural, and technological drivers of CO 2 emissions to advance progress toward SDG 13. However, the role of institutional, technological innovation, and trade in influencing CO 2 emissions remains insufficiently examined in an integrated and multi-channel framework within the African context. Using panel data of 15 African countries from 2000 to 2022, this study utilizes the Bias-Corrected Method of Moments and system GMM to examine the effects of the rule of law, green technology innovation, renewable energy consumption, international trade, and GDP on CO 2 emissions. The results reveal that the rule of law reduces CO 2 emissions, highlighting the role of strong governance and regulatory enforcement in improving environmental performance. Renewable energy consumption is found to reduce CO 2 emissions, reaffirming the environmental benefits of a clean-energy transition in Africa. In contrast, green technology innovation increases CO 2 emissions, suggesting a rebound effect and the predominance of carbon-intensive innovation pathways. GDP similarly contributes to rising CO 2 emissions, consistent with scale-driven environmental pressure. Trade is positively and insignificantly associated with CO 2 emissions. The results underscore the need for Africa to strengthen institutional quality, scale up clean energy systems, and reorient trade toward sustainable sectors to achieve SDG 13. • Examined the effect of rule of law, green technology innovation, andtrade on CO 2 emissions. • Rule of law significantly reduces CO 2 emissions across the African countries. • Green innovation raises CO 2 emissions, showing early-stage rebound effects. • Renewable energy use lowers emissions, supporting Africa's clean transition. • GDP increases CO 2 emissions, reflecting scale-driven pressures.

Purpose This study aims to investigate how renewable energy adoption, digital transformation, financial inclusion and institutional quality contribute to economic growth in six Australian territories: New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia. It seeks to clarify whether these factors, individually and collectively, foster sustainable economic development and advance progress toward key Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Design/methodology/approach Using annual data from 1990 to 2024, the analysis applies advanced econometric techniques, including the common correlated effects mean group, mean group and augmented mean group estimators. These methods allow for heterogeneity across regions while capturing the long-run relationships among renewable energy, digitalization, financial inclusion, institutional quality and economic growth. Findings Results demonstrate that renewable energy adoption has a significant positive effect on economic growth, with estimated contributions ranging between 0.246% and 1.240%. Digitalization and financial inclusion further enhance growth, contributing increases of 1.227%–2.231% and 1.025%–1.033%, respectively. The combined effects of renewable energy and digitalization improve infrastructure efficiency, reduce production costs and strengthen regional competitiveness. Financial inclusion broadens participation in the economy, ensuring more equitable growth. Institutional quality amplifies these outcomes, reinforcing long-term sustainability and resilience. Practical implications The findings suggest that policymakers should prioritize policies that expand renewable energy deployment alongside digital infrastructure and inclusive financial systems. Strengthening institutional frameworks will be crucial for maximizing the benefits of these factors, enabling Australia’s territories to achieve multiple SDGs simultaneously, particularly SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities) and SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities). Originality/value This research provides one of the first integrated assessments of how renewable energy, digitalization, financial inclusion and institutional quality jointly shape economic development within the Australian context. By offering region-specific evidence, it contributes to the broader debate on sustainable growth strategies and provides actionable insights for policymakers in both developed and developing economies.

The sources of judicial dissatisfaction with, and criticism of, expert healthcare evidence are traced to unqualified, careless, overworked and unscrupulous experts and a failure on the part of some experts to work collaboratively with their instructing lawyers during the litigation process. The suggested remedies are: adherence to the clear professional standards that already exist, appropriate training for which the foundations should be laid during undergraduate medical education, continuing professional development, credentialing complemented by instructing solicitors and counsel ensuring that the expert is appropriate for the case and aware of their duties, collaborative working between expert and instructing lawyer, peer and institutional support and quality control including peer review of reports and case-based discussion of reports.

This study investigates the impact of digital economy development on tax revenue mobilization in 38 emerging economies from 2000 to 2023. Employing panel autoregressive distributed lag estimators and addressing cross-sectional dependence through the common correlated effects estimators, we examined both the direct effect of the digital economy and its interaction with institutional quality and financial development. The baseline results reveal a negative and significant association between the digital economy and tax revenue mobilization, suggesting that the rapid expansion of digital economic activities may erode tax bases, enable profit shifting, and exacerbate enforcement gaps in settings where tax systems and regulatory frameworks have not adapted to the digital environment. However, when interaction terms are introduced, the moderating roles of institutional quality and financial development emerge as positive and statistically significant, while the direct effect of the digital economy becomes insignificant. Subsample analysis confirms this heterogeneity; the digital economy exerts a positive and significant impact in countries with higher institutional quality and deeper financial development, but remains negative and significant in countries with weaker institutional and financial systems. These findings underscore the importance of complementary institutional and financial reforms to ensure that digital transformation translates into stronger fiscal capacity in emerging economies. JEL Classification C33, H20, O33

This study uses the lens of Activity Theory to explore the dynamics of a capacity development relationship among educators in the Global South. The research employed a qualitative approach, including questionnaires and interviews with educators from two recipient higher education institutions (HEIs). The findings highlight the importance of a staggered, structured approach to capacity development, where incremental responsibility transfer enables recipient educators to acquire essential skills in teaching, assessment, and curriculum design. Furthermore, the study underscores the importance of mutual respect, collaboration, and continuous professional dialogue within South-South teaching collaborations, contrasting this approach with traditional North-South models. The contribution of this study lies in its novel application of Activity Theory to capacity development, providing valuable insights into how shared responsibilities, tools, and feedback loops facilitate sustainable growth. This research also offers guidance on implementing a staggered capacity development approach, emphasising the benefits of long-term, contextually relevant collaborations in strengthening educational practices and institutional quality.

Background: The expansion of online and hybrid graduate education has shifted the central quality question from delivery feasibility to whether institutions can credibly demonstrate advanced, assessable graduate capability in digitally mediated environments. Competency-based education offers a promising framework for this challenge, but its conceptual foundations and implementation logics remain uneven across higher education. Objective: This scoping review aimed to map how competency-based curriculum design is conceptualised and operationalised in online graduate education and to identify curriculum, assessment, platform, faculty-development, and governance implications for emerging African universities. Methods: Guided by Joanna Briggs Institute scoping review methodology and a Population-Concept-Context framework, the review mapped peer-reviewed studies together with selected policy and quality assurance documents retrieved through structured searching and targeted source identification relevant to online graduate education, competency-based design, and digital higher education governance. Results: The evidence converged around six interdependent domains: competency specification, curriculum architecture, assessment evidence chains, online interaction design, learning management system configuration, and faculty and governance capability. The review found that the central problem is not merely definitional ambiguity, but the failure to sustain alignment from competency statements to valid assessment, platform workflows, and institutional quality assurance. It also found that much of the available evidence comes from higher-capacity systems and professionally regulated disciplines, limiting direct transferability to emerging African universities. Conclusion: Competency-based online graduate curricula are most defensible when treated as institution-wide design architectures rather than course-level innovations. For emerging African universities, credible implementation depends on coherent alignment among curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, platform design, faculty development, and quality management. The review therefore argues for selective translation rather than uncritical borrowing of dominant models.

Purpose This study examines how institutional mechanisms shape CSR disclosure in Latin America, by analysing the relationship between coercive, normative, and mimetic pressures outside the firm and CSR information disclosure by large quoted companies in Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, the four countries of the Integrated Latin American Market (MILA). Design/methodology/approach Content analysis of annual and sustainability reports was conducted, and disclosure indices were constructed for each CSR dimension. Ordinary Least Squares regressions tested the relationship between institutional quality and industry sensitivity, capturing coercive, normative, and mimetic pillars, and their interaction in shaping CSR disclosure practices. Findings Results evidence that institutional quality significantly shapes CSR disclosures, with strong institutional environments (Chile) driving higher disclosures, incomplete contexts (Colombia) fostering compensatory strategies, and captured contexts (Mexico and Peru) showing differentiated behaviour, with Mexican firms strategically using CSR disclosures while Peruvian firms disclose the least. Industry sensitivity mainly enhances Environmental disclosures, and societal pressures moderate organisational-field-specific responses in the Community dimension. Originality/value This study contributes to the under-researched area of CSR disclosure in Latin America by demonstrating how coercive, normative, and mimetic mechanisms jointly influence corporate reporting. It demonstrates a non-linear, U-shaped effect of institutional quality on disclosure, revealing how CSR acts as a mirror in strong contexts, a substitute in weak ones, and a strategic tool in captured ones, while also clarifying the role of normative and mimetic pressures through industry sensitivity.

Purpose This study aims to examine South Asia’s revealed comparative advantage (RCA) in services trade from 2010 to 2023, analysing both static and dynamic patterns. It maps sectoral specialisation across eight economies and identifies structural and policy factors driving competitiveness. By distinguishing persistent advantages from emerging opportunities, the study addresses gaps in understanding the region’s evolving role in global services trade. Design/methodology/approach Using OECD-WTO BaTIS data, the RCA and Dynamic RCA indices are calculated for 12 service sectors grouped into three categories. A differenced panel two-way GMM framework evaluates determinants, such as capital formation, education, human capital, digital readiness, institutional quality and governance, controlling for country-specific heterogeneity and time dynamics. Findings Results reveal structural diversity and uneven competitiveness: India dominates ICT and business services despite declining RCA intensity, while Sri Lanka diversifies and Afghanistan and Bangladesh lose earlier advantages. Determinants vary by service category, physical infrastructure drives traditional services, digital innovation sustains knowledge-intensive sectors and institutional quality anchors government-related services. Persistent RCA indicates cumulative capabilities, with structural rather than price factors shaping competitiveness. Originality/value The study integrates static and dynamic RCA analysis with econometric evidence, providing a nuanced understanding of South Asia’s service trade competitiveness. It highlights sector-specific drivers, resilience of established ecosystems and shifts towards new service specialisations, offering policy-relevant insights for fostering sustainable growth beyond traditional comparative advantages.

This article presents a systematic literature review examining the relationship between government expenditure and poverty reduction, with particular attention to expenditure composition, transmission mechanisms, and governance conditions in developing and decentralized economies. Although government spending is widely regarded as a central policy instrument for poverty alleviation, empirical findings remain mixed and highly context-dependent. Using a systematic review approach, this study synthesizes evidence from international empirical and theoretical studies to identify consistent patterns, divergences, and underlying mechanisms linking public expenditure to poverty outcomes. The review finds that aggregate government expenditure does not automatically reduce poverty; rather, its effectiveness depends critically on how resources are allocated and governed. Expenditures on education and health demonstrate the most robust and sustained poverty-reduction effects through human capital accumulation, while social protection spending is effective in reducing extreme poverty when programs are well targeted and institutionally sound. In contrast, expenditure on economic affairs and infrastructure yields heterogeneous poverty outcomes, largely conditional on project design, spatial targeting, and institutional quality. The findings further highlight economic growth and investment as key transmission mechanisms, emphasizing that growth must be inclusive and employment-generating to produce meaningful poverty reduction. Governance quality emerges as a foundational moderating factor that strengthens or weakens the effectiveness of public spending across sectors. This study contributes to the literature by offering an integrated conceptual framework that clarifies the conditional pathways through which government expenditure affects poverty. From a policy perspective, the results underscore that effective poverty reduction requires not merely increased public spending, but strategic allocation toward pro-poor sectors, strong governance frameworks, and a clear focus on inclusive growth, particularly in countries facing persistent regional disparities.

Institutional quality and corporate liquidity: the interaction of corruption and judicial efficiency

Purpose This study examines the primary drivers of India’s merchandise trade with 48 African countries from 2000 to 2023. It examines how economic size, governance effectiveness, regulatory quality and corruption shape bilateral trade flows within a rapidly evolving South–South economic partnership. By analysing both formal and informal institutional factors, this paper aims to clarify their relative influence on trade and provide evidence-based insights for policies that can strengthen and sustain India–Africa economic cooperation. Design/methodology/approach Structural gravity model estimated using Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood, enabling robust treatment of heteroskedasticity and zero-trade observations. Findings Gross domestic product (GDP) of India and its African partners is the strongest predictor of bilateral trade. Governance effectiveness and regulatory quality have significant positive effects, underscoring the importance of institutional capacity. The analysis also identifies a short-term “greasing the wheels” effect of corruption, where higher corruption levels accompany increased trade, revealing a more complex institutional landscape than conventional views suggest. Model-based projections indicate continued growth in India–Africa trade. Originality/value This paper presents one of the few systematic assessments of India–Africa trade, using a modern structural gravity framework that incorporates institutional quality. By identifying a nuanced corruption effect alongside positive governance impacts, it challenges standard assumptions and highlights the interaction of formal and informal institutions in South–South trade. The results offer clear policy guidance for enhancing governance and regulatory environments to deepen India–Africa economic engagement.

This mixed-methods study, employing correlation analysis, investigated the impact of the internal quality assurance (IQA) system at a leading university in Indonesia. Drawing on data from Internal Quality Audits (AMI) conducted across eleven faculties and institutional units, the research aimed to evaluate institutional performance and identify areas for enhancement. Using a four-point rating scale, descriptive analysis revealed the highest mean scores in Mission (3.86), Governance and Leadership (3.86), Education (3.82), and Finance, Facilities, and Technology (3.77). These findings indicate institutional strengths in strategic direction, organizational performance management, and resource sustainability. Analysis at the faculty level revealed notable variations. For instance, overachievement was observed in specific units (e.g., FBSB, FIPP) and particular selection criteria (e.g., FISHIPOL – Teaching), while the PPGPPI Directorate achieved maximum scores across all indicators. Conversely, lower mean scores were recorded for Community Service (3.58) and Tri Dharma Outputs (3.41), both rated "Very Good," suggesting potential shortcomings in external engagement and research impact. Pearson bivariate correlation analysis identified two primary clusters of significant positive correlations: one among strategic, governance, financial, and output indicators (r = 0.887–0.944; p < 0.01), and another among supporting academic dimensions. The study contributes empirically grounded insights to inform quality policy development. It recommends implementing benchmarking of best practices to enhance community engagement and establishing continuous professional development programs for faculty to strengthen overall institutional quality.

ABSTRACT This study aims to provide a thorough bibliometric analysis of the existing literature on financial development, foreign direct investment (FDI), CO 2 emissions, and governance in renewable energy consumption towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7. This study analyses 2,050 publications indexed in Scopus and Web of Science from 1997 to 2025. It aims to outline the evolution of the global research agenda on finance, investment, institutional quality, and CO 2 emissions, considering renewable energy consumption. Results show that the academic interest in the finance‐energy‐environment nexus is on the rise, especially after the Paris Agreement and the implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. A shift in focus from emissions and economic growth to the increasing importance of green finance, governance, and cross‐border investment to facilitate a clean energy transition is observed. This study highlights that, over the past years, FDI and sustainable development have become a relevant topic of research, emphasising the importance of securing finance and building institutional capacities to support a cleaner energy transition. Notably, the study uncovers significant variations in research across regions. A reliable financial and institutional base is crucial for an inclusive and sustainable energy transition, and this trend provides useful directions for policymaking based on findings from the past three decades. JFL Classifications : Q01; Q42; F21; G20; C83

Background: The undergraduate thesis writing process is a critical phase that can adversely affect students’ psychological well-being. From an educational management standpoint, addressing this is crucial for student retention, success, and institutional quality. Methods: This quantitative study investigated the influence of emotional intelligence, optimism, and peer support on the psychological well-being of 233 thesis-writing students from two Indonesian universities. Data were collected using validated scales and analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in LISREL. Results: The findings revealed that the three variables simultaneously had a positive and significant effect on psychological well-being, accounting for 89% of its variance (R² = 0.89). Each construct also contributed a significant positive effect individually. Conclusion and Implications: The results underscore the necessity for a proactive educational management approach. Higher education institutions are advised to move beyond a purely academic focus and develop comprehensive support systems. These systems should integrate structured training for emotional skills, programs to foster optimism, and university-facilitated peer support networks. Incorporating these elements into the core student affairs strategy is essential for creating a healthier learning environment and promoting sustainable academic success. This study is among the first to integrate emotional intelligence, optimism, and peer support within a single SEM-based model in the thesis-writing context, advancing the educational management literature by identifying peer support as the dominant institutional leverage point for student psychological well-being.

The study is framed within the need to strengthen teacher performance in primary education, considering that educational quality largely depends on teachers’ preparation, reflection, and continuous professional development; in this regard, teacher professional development is analyzed from a situated and collaborative perspective, as an alternative to traditional decontextualized training models. The general objective was to generate teacher professional development strategies aimed at the comprehensive strengthening of the performance of teachers at the “Andrés Eloy Blanco” National Primary School, located in Punto Fijo, Falcón state. Methodologically, the research was developed under a qualitative approach, with an exploratory-descriptive type of study and a non-experimental design, supported by the action research modality; the population consisted of teachers, school administrators, and key informants from the institution, selected through purposive sampling; in-depth interviews, participant observation, and focus groups were used as techniques, employing interview guides and field diaries as instruments. The results revealed that teachers demonstrate a strong vocation and professional commitment, but face limitations in their continuous training, particularly in areas such as mathematics and languages, as well as economic and access barriers; likewise, a pedagogical practice marked by empirical experience and the need to strengthen collaborative reflection was identified. It is concluded that the implementation of situated and collaborative professional development strategies enhances teacher performance, promotes the collective construction of knowledge, and contributes to institutional educational quality.

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) faces a persistent shortage of skilled health workers, which constrains health system performance and population health outcomes. Although previous studies examine either health workforce density or governance quality separately, little empirical evidence exists on their interaction. This study investigates the relationship between skilled health workforce density and health outcomes in 45 SSA countries over the period 1996-2023, with particular attention to the moderating role of governance quality. Using a dynamic panel approach and the two-step system generalised method of moments (GMM) estimator, the analysis evaluates the impact of health workforce density on life expectancy (LE), maternal mortality and under-5 mortality. The results show that greater availability of skilled health professionals significantly improves health outcomes, particularly by increasing LE and reducing maternal mortality. Furthermore, governance quality strengthens the effectiveness of health workforce investments, indicating that institutional capacity is crucial to translating human resources into better health outcomes. Control variables, such as GDP per capita, government health expenditure and primary education, also contribute to improved population health. The findings highlight the importance of integrating governance reforms with policies aimed at expanding the health workforce. Strengthening institutional quality alongside investments in medical training and workforce retention can provide a sustainable pathway to improving health outcomes in SSA.