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This study examines the effects of corporate governance mechanisms on voluntary corporate carbon disclosure in Bangladeshi firms.

To investigate the association between corporate governance mechanisms and corporate carbon disclosures, this study employs ordinary least square (OLS) methods. To mitigate the potential endogeneity concerns, the authors also introduce firm fixed effect (FE) and random effect (RE). Primarily, the study sample includes 250 firm-year observations over the period 2015–2019 for listed companies on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) in Bangladesh. Subsequently, corporate governance mechanisms that influence voluntary carbon disclosure were examined using both univariate and OLS models.

The findings of this study suggest that firms with a larger board size and more independent directors have a positive impact on the firm's intensity to disclose carbon-related information. However, no evidence has been found of the existence of an environmental committee, and the presence of female directors on the board tends to be associated with a higher level of voluntary corporate carbon disclosure.

The study offers necessary evidence of the determinants of corporate carbon disclosures, which will be useful for managers, senior executives, policymakers and regulatory bodies. To improve corporate governance practices and formulate separate sets of regulations and reporting criteria, disclosing extensive and holistic carbon-related information obligatory. Further, the outcomes of this study based on Bangladeshi firms can be comprehensive for other developing countries to take precautions to tackle the effect of global climate change.

The purpose of this paper is to measure the impact of financial inclusion on economic development.

Study 1 used World Bank Data to develop financial inclusion percentages of ownership of checking accounts, savings accounts, debit cards and loans for 179 countries among the poorest 40% of the population, from 2011–2017. Regressions established the financial inclusion, gross savings and GDP per capita growth linkage. Study 2 created and validated scales to measure social empowerment, economic empowerment and economic development, among inhabitants of Bangladesh villages. Structural equation modeling measured the mediation by social empowerment and economic empowerment of the financial inclusion and economic development linkage.

Total financial inclusion was significantly explained by gross savings, which was significantly explained by GDP per capita growth. Ownership of a checking account significantly increased gross savings, while ownership of a savings account significantly increased GDP per capita growth. Ownership of a checking account differentiated countries with the highest 5% of gross savings, while ownership of a debit card significantly differentiated countries with the GDP per capita growth. Social empowerment and economic empowerment significantly mediated the financial inclusion and economic development relationship.

The study is unique in examining financial inclusion from a multi country, macroeconomic perspective combined with measurement of its theoretical underpinnings through a primary data-based sample extracted from respondents in Bangladesh, a lower middle-income country in Southeast Asia.

One of the major objectives of India's National Auto Policy (NAP) (2018) is to help the country emerge as a hub for automotive production and research and development (R&D). In order to fulfill this long-term objective, two policies had been proposed by NAP (2018). First, possibility of exploring regional trade agreements (RTAs) with leading countries, having attractive markets for Indian players, was considered. Second, the policy aimed to evaluate the potential implications of joining the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) WP.29 1958 agreement within the next 5 years for tackling the potential major technical barriers to trade (TBT), as India's current accession in UNECE WP.29 1998 agreement may not be sufficient for ensuring mutual recognition of standards in many of the partner countries. India is presently engaged in RTA negotiations with several developed and developing countries, with potentially beneficial repercussions for automobile exports. However, the question of accession to UNECE WP.29 1958 agreement has not received similar attention of late, which may restrain the anticipated sectoral export growth, particularly through RTA-led market access outcomes. Given this background, the current analysis considers India's potential sectoral trade growth with eight partner countries, in the case of RTA-led tariff reforms, through a WITS-SMART simulation exercise. The obtained simulation results indicate that India needs to focus on the technical standard harmonization question for reaping the full benefits arising from tariff reforms in several upcoming RTAs, for boosting auto-exports in the post-RTA period.

This study intends to assess the research trends on natural disasters and their contribution to the various fields of policy decisions in India by conducting a bibliometric analysis between 2008 and 2022. The Scopus database was used to extract pertinent literature. The key relevant terms were used to seek relevant papers based on the query of two searches, ‘Natural disaster and India’ scenarios combined by the Boolean operator ‘AND’. Microsoft Excel and VOSviewer-Var1.6.16 were used to assess bibliometric indicators. The database yielded 1,293 papers in all, with 14,584 citations. There were 262 single authors and 1,031 multi-author documents among the publications that were retrieved, with an average of 11.28 citations per document. After 2016, there was a dramatic growth in the total number of publications. The journal articles were the leading source of the particular literature, and this study extracted approximately 858 journal articles from the Scopus database. About 713 and 580 articles were open and closed access, respectively. Earth and planetary sciences (28.07%), social science (31.01%), and environmental science (30.39%) had a higher proportion of papers than other topics. The most impactful authors were Rajib Shaw and Filip K. Arnberg from Keio University, Japan, and Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden. Besides, the most funding institutions were from India (39.33%), China (13.11%), and the United States (11.9%) for natural disaster research, in the case of India. The current baseline information on natural disaster-related literature in the context of India showed that this field is growing rapidly but with inadequate research collaboration and low productivity as needed. Research collaboration in this field needs to be strengthened to improve the solid response to natural disasters in any place in India. In addition, there is a need to expand the research focus in this field to include associated indicators.

The liberalization initiative commenced in India from 1991 onwards, replacing the four-decade long import substitution policy. The primary objective was to enhance the role of foreign and private investment, in line with the newly embraced outward-oriented growth model. The government had undertaken several policy initiatives since then, especially to strengthen the manufacturing sector which plays an important role in the economic development of any country. The current study evaluates the effects of the liberalization policy in India on industrial outcomes. Recent studies have found that when firm heterogeneity is present in trade models, reforms will lead to a decrease in the number of firms and a rise in their average size (Melitz, 2003). A dataset of 24 manufacturing industries had been used in the current study. We test empirically whether liberalization had led to a rise in the average size of establishments as stated in the literature. We also attempt to analyze the magnitude of trade costs in terms of the impact of reforms on wages and prices. The empirical analysis based on the difference-in-difference (DID) estimation method shows that on average, trade reforms do not lead to an increase in the real wages and average size of establishments. In addition, prices appear to increase in the long run due to liberalization, with potential ramifications.

Arsenic contamination in shallow groundwater aquifers in the lower Gangetic basin constitutes a major health hazard in the Bengal basin extended over Bangladesh and India. It has been estimated that at least 35 million people in Bangladesh and 6 million people in India are severely affected by arsenic-contaminated water. More so, about 57 and 9 million people in Bangladesh and West Bengal, respectively, are exposed to arsenic-contamination risk. The use of hazardous, arsenic-bearing groundwater for drinking, cooking, and irrigation in West Bengal and Bangladesh has led to what has been described by the WHO as the worst case of mass poisoning in human history. In case of West Bengal, the problem of arsenic contamination was discovered in the 1980s; since then several mitigation measures were adopted by the provincial and federal governments, community organizations, and NGOs. Yet, poor infrastructural arrangements, dire poverty, lack of awareness, and education increased the risk of arsenic exposure over the decades. In this chapter, an effort has been made to critically analyze the extent of mitigation measures adopted so far in the state of West Bengal. It discusses in detail the chronological responses of the provincial government in arsenic risk mitigation, implementation of adopted mitigation measures, and the consequent response and actions of arsenic-affected communities in West Bengal. The chapter also highlights the emerging challenges of arsenic risk mitigation in West Bengal and proposes a “system-based” framework for risk mitigation.

The present study aims to determine the existence of simultaneous relationship between economic growth, income inequality, fiscal policy, and total trade of the 13 emerging market economies as a group for the period 1980–2010. After establishing the existence of simultaneity between the above relationships, a simultaneous panel model has been formulated and estimated incorporating the nonlinearity among the variables as suggested by the existing literature. An inverted U-shape relationship is evident between (1) economic growth, income inequality, and total trade in economic growth equation, (2) income inequality, economic growth, and per capita income in income inequality equation, and (3) total trade and economic growth in total trade equation. Thus, the existence of a two-way nonlinear relationship is highlighted between economic growth, income inequality, and total trade. Apart from these nonlinear relationships, positive and significant effect of (1) gross capital formation, inflation, population growth, human capital, fiscal policy, monetary policy, and domestic credit to private sector on economic growth; (2) civil liabilities on income inequality; (3) gross capital formation and inflation on total trade; (4) total trade, population growth of those aged 65 years and above, political system on fiscal policy is highlighted. Also, negative and significant effect of (1) fiscal policy on income inequality and (2) income inequality on fiscal policy is revealed.

The purpose of this study is to examine the welfare effects of product standards (which fall under Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs)) on an exporting country when the country by its own choice prefers to follow the null standard for the domestic market, which is not possible due to high set up cost at two different standards. The model has used a theoretical framework to analyze the effects and has derived some important results. If the standard is not linked with a true negative externality, the exporting country, given the assumptions of the model will always prefer to be discriminated by “tariff” and the importing country will prefer to protect its market by “tariff” rather than going for NTB. The typical assumptions taken here resemble the trade between developed and developing countries when the developed country imposes some minimum standard on a product but becomes relatively “costly” for the developing country to comply with. As the importing country is not free to set tariffs, it will use NTB as a minimum standard (as it is welfare-improving than free trade). However, the minimum standard also affects the exporting country's local producers and consumers. So NTB leads to a worse situation for both countries and definitely worst for the exporting country. Using a game theoretic framework, the study shows that the imposition of standards which does not address any real externality can be an optimum response for an importing country leading to a loss in the global welfare compared to a free trade situation.