<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> The concept of sustainable development has undergone various developmental phases since its introduction. The historical development of the concept saw participation of various organizations and institutions, which nowadays work intensely on the implementation of its principles and objectives. The concept has experienced different critiques and interpretations over the time while being accepted in different areas of human activity, and the definition of sustainable development has become one of the most cited definitions in the literature. In its development, the concept has been adapting to the contemporary requirements of a complex global environment, but the underlying principles and goals, as well as the problems of their implementation, remained almost unchanged. Still, some goals have been updated, and the new goals were set. These goals are united in the framework of the Millennium Development Goals 2015 which outline the challenges that humanity has to fight not only to achieve sustainable development but to survive on Earth as well.</abstract>

The Concept of Sustainable Development: From its Beginning to the Contemporary Issues

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
The concept of working students meeting triple demands of their work, studies and private life has not been sufficiently described or empirically supported in the literature, although combining work and study is not only a necessity for many students, but a common phenomenon among them. As well, studies so far focused on the dyads of work-nonwork relationship, predominantly on the work-study conflict/balance and rarely on the study-life conflict/balance, while the triad of work-study-life balance (WSLB) is understudied. This study is the first one to empirically examine the WSLB concept, defined as a balance of conjoining three ‘categories of student commitment’ – their work obligations, demands of their studies and their private life, using a methodology grounded in the work-life balance (WLB) theory. We conducted a cross-sectional quantitative study on a sample of 235 students, focused on the most relevant dyads of the WSLB concept, socio-demographic predictors and emotional consequences of WSLB. Our five key findings are: (1) it is possible to balance work, studies and private life, (2) work-study balance (WSB) is critical for achieving WSLB, (3) all subgroups of students based on their socio-demographic characteristics are equally (un)successful in achieving balance between and among various life aspects, (4) WSLB is significantly participating in students’ emotional state in terms of their happiness, unhappiness and relaxation, and (5) the study-life balance (SLB) dyad is the most relevant dyad for the students’ emotional state.
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Work-Study-Life Balance – the Concept, its Dyads, Socio-Demographic Predictors and Emotional Consequences

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
An important feature of every financial system throughout history is its capability to facilitate transfer of money in a secure and cost efficient manner. Cryptocurrencies as sources of innovative solutions – especially Bitcoin as their most prominent representative – have offered a completely new transmission system for a piece of information that can contain and carry value. There are many approaches to evaluate (un)successfulness of Bitcoin as money, and arguably one of the most important is to assess the fulfilment of its inventor’s original proposition: can it be used to send money directly and securely abroad, to international destinations, without fear of double-spending? Moreover, by removing institutions and their fees from the system hierarchy, can it be done for a lower price? The objective of creating Bitcoin network (among others) was to promote democratization of finance by enabling monetary transactions over the internet without unnecessary intermediaries inserting and charging multiple layers of fees. In decentralized, distributed blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum subjects are incentivized to collectively maintain the public ledger (blockchain) by collecting block rewards (“coinbase”) and transaction fees. Block-chain maintenance is known as mining, and miners are compensated for their effort in the form of fees (and coinbase rewards) for verifying transactions. The objective of this paper is to examine and compare fees for transferring money internationally by means of Bit-coin network, in contrast to using traditional pathways, mostly banks, and in this manner to scrutinize the proof of concept and one of the cryptocurrency solutions to the issue of money transfer. By doing so we are attempting to provide answers to the questions of functionality and cost-effectiveness of an alternative financial system based on the blockchain technology. Transaction fees for international payments made by Bitcoin are compared by analysing a novel dataset obtained from World Bank and Croatian National Bank (CNB). CNB’s data is not publicly available, and was attained for this paper specifically. It contains 1.400 types of fees charged by the 23 banks operating in Croatia for the period of October 2018 to February 2022. Bank fees for international transactions were matched with Bitcoin fees in the same period, with the data taken from Blockchain.com online service. On average, to send 1,000 USD abroad by using Bitcoin network required approx. three times less in fees than by using banks in Croatia. The calculation structure of bank fees, also presented in the paper, required higher costs for sending lower amounts (in terms of percentage); when transferring 200 USD banks worldwide charged on average approx. 30 times more in fees than Bitcoin miners. Additionally, transaction fees for international remittances were analysed with quarterly data from World Bank. Comparative analysis of these and Bitcoin fees was made, and it is clear that (on average) sending money abroad via Bitcoin network bears significantly lower costs for the end user, especially when transferring lower amounts. Due to the non-normality of the distributions of the underlying variables, non-parametric tests were applied and the null hypothesis that transaction costs have identical medians was rejected. In conclusion, when needing to transfer money internationally users can obtain significantly lower costs by using decentralized technologies such as Bitcoin’s blockchain. This finding validates one of the key propositions of the distributed ledgers. Rather than focusing on wild daily Bitcoin price swings and its volatility, Bitcoin network functions as a cost-effective international payment system and proves itself as an alternative to traditional money transfer schemes.
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Overseas Transaction Fees: Sending Money via Bitcoin vs. Banks

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>Shawn Ritenour provides a review of my two-volume book titled Money, Banking, and the Business Cycle in the winter 2016 issue of The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. This paper constitutes a response to some of the criticisms of the book in his review. In this response, I discuss topics such as the nature of profits, the sustainability of changes in time preference, the role of changes in prices versus changes in spending in the business cycle, the relationship between interest rates and the rate of profit, the nature of fraud, and the nature of value. I also discuss whether the structure of production can be measured using the average period of production. I address other issues raised by Ritenour as well. This discussion sheds light on Austrian business cycle theory and the nature of the business cycle.</abstract>

Lessons from a Review of Money, Banking, and the Business Cycle

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
This paper aims to investigate the impact of deferred tax, as a technique adopted to support the economic orientation of financial statements over their legal form, on earnings quality as a required attribute to achieve the objective of financial reporting. The study used the model of Sloan (1996) through 280 firm-year observations that concern 40 Algerian companies from 2013 to 2019. Employing persistence and predictive ability as proxies for earnings quality, the results indicated that earnings of Algerian companies present a high level of persistence and a weak level of predictive ability. However, the deferred tax does impact neither the persistence of earnings nor their predictive ability. Therefore, accounting regulators in Algeria must simplify accounting for the deferred tax to encourage its application by companies and improve earnings quality.
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The Impact of Deferred Tax on Earnings Quality: Evidence from Algerian Companies

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>This study examines the role of information and communication technology (ICT), access to electricity and transport infrastructure in reducing poverty and promoting inclusive growth in Nigeria for the period 1980-2014 using the error correction modeling approach (ECM). The results indicate that access to electricity and transport infrastructure is negative and statistically significant in both the incidence and the depth of poverty reduction and therefore conclude that this lead to inclusive growth. In particular, we show that access to ICT negatively influences the incidence of poverty, but the relationship is not robust when the measure of poverty is the poverty gap.</abstract>

Technology Access, Inclusive Growth and Poverty Reduction in Nigeria: Evidence from Error Correction Modeling Approach

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
This study aims to investigate the potential relationship between the cash conversion cycle (CCC) and firm profitability for the period from 2011 to 2019. To do this, a fixed effects panel regression model is applied to a sample of firms listed on the Macedonian Stock Exchange. Firm profitability is measured by the return on assets (ROA) ratio, while the liability ratio, firm size, current ratio, acid test and liquidity ratio are used as control variables. Our main finding is a decreasing and convex relationship between cash conversion cycle and profitability. In terms of working capital management policy, this implies that firms with a shorter cash conversion cycle perform better than others, since financial managers repay suppliers and reduce investments in working capital.
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Does the Cash Conversion Cycle Affect Firm Profitability? Some Empirical Evidence from Listed Firms in North Macedonia

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
The objective of this study was to provide comprehensive static information in the area of transfer pricing in order to assess the current situation and attempt to establish future research priorities. The data source used is the WoS database, where 788 different articles with 21,917 corresponding references were collected for the analysis. A bibliometric approach was applied using the VoSviewer software. In comparison to Kumar et al. (2021), who presented the results of the citation analysis of the articles found in the SCOPUS database, the authors performed a first-level analysis of the articles found in the WoS database, but also a second-level analysis, which was presented as a co-citation analysis. The primary similarity arises from the use of an identical methodology at the first level of analysing different sources, while the results of the co-citation analysis allow the formation of clusters for references, sources and authors, thus closing the obvious gap in the analysis of Kumar et al. (2021). The obtained results show two logical directions of continuation and development of the studied topic. The first direction allows future researchers to have a basic understanding of the breadth and depth of currently published works and studies on transfer pricing, while the development of the treated topic should be seen in the context of filling the gaps between transfer pricing and bibliometric analysis.
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What We Know So Far about Transfer Pricing: a Bibliometric Analysis

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
The study’s major purposes were to assess technical efficiency, determine its causes, and measure the marketing performance of turmeric production in the Sheko and Yeki areas. A two-stage random sampling approach was used to select 300 households. Cobb-Douglas and Tobit model were used to investigate efficiency levels and determinants. As a result, the average technical efficiency was 73.72. The average technical efficiency suggests that it was possible to raise turmeric production by 26.28 percent without utilizing additional inputs. Land, labor, oxen, seeds, herbicide, and urea all had a big impact on how much turmeric was produced. The Tobit model revealed that gender, age, household size, the number of plots, and market information substantially impacted technical efficiency. The structure conduct performance model was used to evaluate the performance of the Turmeric market. The findings showed that the markets for Turmeric in the region were non-competitive, with concentration ratios at the Sheko and Tepi markets of 78.5 and 64.2%, respectively. Policies aimed at motivating and strengthening the existing agricultural extension system, and providing appropriate marketing information, is required to improve Turmeric’s efficiency and Marketing performance.
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Technical Efficiency and Marketing Performance of Turmeric Production

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
The two popular geometrical shapes – circle and square – have long attracted the attention of scholars in mathematics, philosophy, religion, architecture, art and traditions of the human society. Following is a brief review of the use of these two images in historical perspective.
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Some Historical and Economic Facts behind the Geometry of Circles and Squares

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate the empirical relationship between corporate internationalization and uncertainty of cash holding in non-financial listed companies of Pakistan. Secondly, the effect of cash flow, size of firm and capital expenditure on uncertainty of cash is also explored.
Design/Methodology/Approach - A panel data of 100 companies over the period starting from 2011 to 2018 is collected from the published annual reports. Data is analyzed using pooled and panel OLS regression. For robustness of results dynamic GMM is used. Findings - The estimated results show a significant negative relationship between corporate internationalization and uncertainty of cash holdings. Moreover, large size firms tend to represents a relatively more stable cash balance as compared to small size firms. Practical Implications - The study concludes that firms engage in international operations are in better position to access external capital market and are able to stabilize their liquidity.
Originality/Value – This study uses 3 years standard deviation of cash instead of conventionally used absolute change in cash balance to measure uncertainty of cash. This study is among the first studies to examine such sort of relationships in an emerging economy. Further, for robustness of results dynamic panel GMM is applied.
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Corporate Internationalization and Uncertainty of Cash Holdings: Evidence from an Emerging Market

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
A growing body of scholarly research has explored the non-linearity of the Phillips curve, but empirical evidence from an African perspective, particularly within the ECOWAS sub-regional context, remains underexplored. This study aims to address this gap by offering a fresh perspective on the asymmetric Phillips curve for West African countries through a comparative country-specific analysis and a panel framework utilizing the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model for the period 1986–2020. The empirical outcomes demonstrate that the asymmetric response of inflation to both positive and negative unemployment differs across the countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo. Specifically, the study finds that inflation declines when unemployment rises and surges when unemployment declines in both short- and long-term dynamics. These findings highlight that low unemployment during economic expansion leads to wage-price spirals, while high unemployment results in low inflationary pressure during economic downturns in the analyzed countries. The empirical outcomes are robust and consistent for both country-specific and panel analyses, but the extent of the inflation response to unemployment is more pronounced in the WAMZ subregion. This study provides valuable insights for policymakers regarding the formulation of sound regional monetary policy.
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A new perspective on the asymmetric Phillips curve: Fresh evidence from ECOWAS member countries

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>This study investigates the impact of hierarchical jumps in the CEO’s succession on firms’ financial performance. To contemplate deeply, hierarchical jumps have been categorized into high and low level evaluating the positive impact of high-level hierarchical jump on firms’ performance. Moreover, this study has also formulated hierarchical intensity signifying the idea that despite neglecting senior board members during hierarchical jumps, still marginal increment in the firms’ growth has been observed. Using panel regression technique along with 2sls instrumental regression, this research reveals that hierarchical jumps in CEOs successions are more conducive only if the incumbent CEOs are selected irrespective of age, degree or high hierarchical position within the hierarchical ladder. Lastly, this study enunciates that firms having high total assets boost their performance via hierarchical jumps emphatically.</abstract>

Whether CEO Succession Via Hierarchical Jumps is Detrimental or Blessing in Disguise? Evidence from Chinese Listed Firms

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>Eco-innovation, as a new concept, and green technologies are central to the Europe’s future and at the core of the European Union policies to boost competitiveness, create jobs, and generate sustainable growth for years to come. In this context, eco-innovation is a significant tool that combines decreased environmental impact with a positive socioeconomic impact. This paper highlights the prominent role of eco-innovation and investigates still scarcely explored impact assessment of GDP growth, quality of institutions, and recycling rates on the eco-innovation index in the 28 European Union member states. Specifically, the set of regression analyses that use panel estimation models was undertaken and the system GMM estimator with robust standard errors was used. Econometric analysis indicates that GDP growth rate, quality of institutions, and recycling rate of municipal waste had a statistically significant and positive effect on eco-innovation in the period 2010-2016.</abstract>

Eco-innovation and Economic Growth in the European Union

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> The idea that working capital management impacts profitability and risk of a company is generally accepted and in last 10-15 years has acquired a substantial interest. Accordingly, from the aspect of the measure of efficiency of working capital management, the objective of this paper is to evaluate working capital management impact on profitability of Croatian software companies. This impact was examined using descriptive and correlation as well as panel regression analysis for six-year period (2008-2013). The results show that after controlling for characteristics of the company and macroeconomic conditions working capital management significantly affects the profitability of Croatian software firms. Moreover, the results imply the existence of a nonlinear, concave quadratic relationship between the net working capital and return on assets. This suggest the existence of an optimal level of net working capital that balances costs and benefits and maximizes profitability of analysed companies.</abstract>

The Impact of Working Capital Management on Profitability of Croatian Software Companies

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>This paper studies the relationship between residential property prices and macroeconomic and demographic determinants in Malaysia. In the years following the Asian financial crisis, property prices in Malaysia rose substantially, resulting in an affordability crisis and ultimately policy responses to the problem. Using unit root, Johansen-Juselius cointegration, VECM-based Granger causality tests and variance decomposition, and considering quarterly data that covers 2000-2015 period, we established that residential property price growth is principally driven by strong demographic performance and population growth and is backed by the low interest rate environment and rising consumer prices. Household income and level of GDP do not appear to contribute to property price growth. Certain distortions and asymmetries in the Malaysian real estate markets are documented: oversupply in the higher price segment of the market coupled with the lack of affordable housing in the lower price segment; household income growth lagging behind GDP and property price growth, thereby dampening housing demand; growing rental markets in major urban areas as a result of the affordability crisis; and a quality mismatch between buyers’ preferences and housing supply.</abstract>

Macroeconomic and Demographic Determinants of Residential Property Prices in Malaysia

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>Despite numerous scholarly attempts, there is a lack of consensus regarding the relevance of various factors influencing consumer’s intention to purchase organic food. The purpose of this study is to asses the impact of subjective and personal norms on consumer attitude toward buying organic food. Moreover, this study aims to explore the moderating role of contextual factors - product knowledge and consumer scepticism on the norms- attitude link. Data were collected through an online survey on a sample of 212 organic food buyers in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Moderated regression analysis was used to test the hypothesized relations between the constructs of interest. Findings indicate the subjective and personal norms are positively and significantly related to consumer attitude toward organic food purchases. Also, our findings revealed that product knowledge strengthens the subjective norms-attitude relationship, while consumer scepticism toward organic food claims weakens the subjective norms-attitude link. This study informs producers, marketers, and policy-makers about the relative importance of norms, scepticism, and knowledge in the context of organic food consumption.</abstract>

When Consumers are in Doubt, You Better Watch Out! The Moderating Role of Consumer Skepticism and Subjective Knowledge in the Context of Organic Food Consumption

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Zagreb International Review of Economics and Business

 ZIREB is an international journal of economics and business. It covers wide range of topics in macroeconomics, microeconomics, management, marketing and tourism. In general, it...

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 ZIREB is an international journal of economics and business. It covers wide range of topics in macroeconomics, microeconomics, management,...

Zagreb International Review of Economics and Business

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