• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.91-105
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• 2019

The paper aims to combine balance sheet analysis at the firm level with the International Monetary Fund's public debt sustainability assessment framework to assess state-owned enterprises' (SOE) leverage as a contingent liability to the public sector. Based on company data and the interest coverage ratio as a measure of debt at risk, aggregate baseline scenarios are projected to gauge the magnitude of SOE debt as a contingency. SOE's financial and debt ratios are first bootstrapped to generate firm-level distributions and then averaged into a fan chart of the economy-wide SOE contingent liability. Applied to the People's Republic of China as an example, the study finds that by the end of 2015 SOE leverage had grown to a substantial liability. However arbitrary the assumptions underlying these projections, it would appear that even if authorities had to mop up as much as 20% of SOE debt at risk gone bad, this would have been manageable at roughly 2.7% of the gross domestic product in 2016 or 5.5% by 2021. This projection framework is fully amenable to alternative assumptions and settings, which makes it a useful analytical tool to monitor contingent liabilities from non-financial corporate debt that have been building in emerging and advanced economies alike.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.200-205
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• 2024

This paper examines the impact of ESG activities of domestic shipping companies on the cost of debt. It is known that companies with large information asymmetry tend to have high costs of debt. Corporate ESG activities have been identified as an effective means of reducing information asymmetry. By actively engaging in ESG activities, companies can lower the cost of debt by reducing information asymmetry. Therefore, this study aims to investigate whether these mechanisms, which have been observed in previous studies, also apply to domestic shipping companies. Multiple regression analysis is conducted on KOSP I-listed shipping companies from2010 to 2022. The cost of debt is set as the dependent variable, while the ESG rating is used as the explanatory variable. The analysis reveals that companies with a high level of ESG activities generally have a lower cost of debt. However, it is important to note that ESG activities of shipping companies do not seem to have a significant impact on their cost of debt. In fact, the level of ESG activities among domestic shipping companies is not particularly high (Hong, 2024). Despite these findings, domestic shipping companies should still strive for sustainable management to adapt to the rapidly changing business environment and meet the demands of the modern era. ESG management is a representative method for achieving sustainability. Therefore, shipping companies should not only focus on reducing the cost of debt but also on opening up the closed industry culture and communicating with capital market participants for sustainable growth. It is crucial for these companies to listen to the voices of stakeholders and embrace a holistic approach to sustainability.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.9
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• pp.3299-3309
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• 2022

Nuclear energy has the potential to play an influential role in energy transition efforts than is now anticipated by many countries. Realizing sustainable human development and reducing global climate crises will become more difficult without significantly increasing nuclear power. This paper aims to probe the role of nuclear energy, external debt, and financial globalization in sustaining human development and environmental conditions simultaneously in BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) countries. This study applied a battery of second-generation estimation approaches over the period from 1990 to 2019. These methods are useful and robust to cross-countries dependencies, slope heterogeneity, parameters endogeneity, and serial correlation that are ignored in conventional approaches to generate more comprehensive and reliable estimates. The empirical findings indicate that nuclear energy and financial globalization contribute to human development, whereas external debt inhibits it. Similarly, financial globalization accelerates ecological deterioration, but nuclear energy and external debt promote environmental sustainability. Moreover, the study reveals bidirectional feedback causalities between human development, carbon emissions and nuclear energy consumption. The study offers useful policy guidance on accomplishing sustainable and inclusive development in BRICS countries.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.91-98
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• 2021

One of the concerns in the economic policy circle is the fiscal sustainability. This current research revisit the notion of fiscal sustainability for Malaysia using the Indicator of Fiscal Sustainability (IFS) developed by Croce and Juan-Ramón (2003) where we employ samples of time-series data from 1970 to 2017. The findings reveal that 40 out of 48 years, during which the calculated IFS algorithm is above the threshold of 1, imply Malaysia was fiscally unsustainable. Despite having been fiscally unsustainable, Malaysia's fiscal stance shows improvement as a result of fiscal consolidation and fiscal reforms during the sample period. This is shown by the improved calculated IFS algorithm on average, which the value improved from 1.465 in 1970-1993 to 1.377 in 1998-2004 and to 1.146 in the 2006-2013. From the policy front, this indicator can serve as a precautionary early warning measure in formulating future fiscal path for Malaysia. This can be executed by targeting debt ratio and shifting the allocation of expenditures away from less efficient toward more growth-enhancing ones, which eventually would regain fiscal space to counter any incoming economic shocks in the future. This can enhance the fiscal transparency and assist in formulating a fiscal policy strategy in Malaysia.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.5-18
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• 2017

Total debt in the People's Republic of China surged to nearly 290% as a ratio to GDP by the second quarter of 2016, mostly on account of non-financial corporate debt. The outpouring of credit to stem the impact of the global financial crisis accentuated industrial overcapacity in traditional sectors, such as steel, cement, and energy, while feeding asset bubbles in the property, equity and bond markets. At the Chinese corporate level, this has translated into weakened fundamentals and a fall in industrial profits, particularly of SOEs. As debtors struggle to service interest payments, non-performing loans (NPLs) have been on the rise. This paper assesses the financial fragility of the Chinese economy by looking at risk factors in the non-financial sector. We apply quantile regressions to a dataset containing all Chinese listed companies in Standard & Poor's IQ Capital database. We find higher sensitivity over time of corporate leverage to some of its key determinants, particularly for firms at the upper margin of the distribution. In particular, profitability increasingly acts as a curb on corporate leverage. At a time of falling profitability across the Chinese non-financial corporate sector, this eases the brake on leverage and may contribute to its continuing increase.

• Clean Technology
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.269-274
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• 2021

Bioenergy is generally considered to be one of the options for pursuing carbon neutrality. However, for a period of time, combustion of harvested plant biomass inevitably causes more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than combustion of fossil fuels. This paper proposes a method that predicts and minimizes the total amount and payback period of this carbon debt. As a case study, a carbon cycle impact assessment was performed for immediate switching of the currently used fossil fuels to biomass. This work points out a fundamental vulnerability in the concept of carbon neutrality. As an action plan for the sustainability of bioenergy, formulas for afforestation proportional to the decrease in the forest area and surplus harvest proportional to the increase in the forest mass are proposed. The results of optimization indicate that the carbon debt payback period is about 70 years, and the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases by more than 50% at a maximum and 3% at a steady state. These are theoretically predicted best results, which are expected to be worse in reality. Therefore, biomass is not truly carbon neutral, and it is inappropriate as an energy source alternative to fossil fuels. The method proposed in this work is expected to be able to contribute to the approach to carbon neutrality by minimizing present and future carbon debt of the bioenergy that is already in use.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.31-65
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• 2012

We study the sustainability of the current fiscal policy of Korea, and the effects of the social welfare policy expansion, which has been recently discussed among the political circles, on the government budget and the generational equity, using generational accounting. We follow the generational accounting approach, considering the fact that most of the social welfare policies are the entitlement programs, which imposes the limitation of the policy maker's discretion to control the cost of their provision. The social welfare expenditure will change due to the change in the policy environments of the future, such as population aging. Therefore, we need to take into account the government cash flow of the future as well as of the present to investigate its effects on the fiscal sustainability, which implies that the national debt or the budget balance is not a proper index for the investigation. Our findings are as follows. The current fiscal policies are not sustainable, and the long-term budgetary imbalance is shown very serious. The required tax adjustment, which is defined as the percentage change of tax burden required to attain the long-term budgetary balance, is very large. Unless the level of the government expenditure is properly controlled, the tax burden and the social contribution level will rise to the untolerable level. Moreover, the expansion of the social welfare policies, which has been discussed among the political circles, will substantially increase the fiscal burden of the future generations. Even though the provision of the free lunch to the primary and the secondary school students, the free child care, and the discounted college tuition do not increase the fiscal burden much, because their magnitude at present is not large and will decrease due to the decrease in the number of the newborns and the students resulting from the fall in the fertility rate, that of the free health care service will increase tax burden of the future generations very much, because the magnitude of the government expenditure needed at present is very large and the population aging will further increase the magnitude of the health care expenditure. The findings indicate that the structural reforms, to prevent the explosive increase in the social welfare expenditure in the future, are necessary before the implementation of the welfare policy expansion. In particular, the cost control of the social transfers to the elderly needs to be made, because the speed of the population aging of Korea is among the highest in the world. The findings also indicate that the budget balance or the national debt can cause the fiscal illusion, which makes the Korean government budget look sound, even though the fiscal policy will rapidly increase the social welfare expenditure in the future, as the population ages. The generational accounting, which takes into account the cash flow of the future as well as of the present, unlike the budgetary balance and the national debt, which shows the results of the government financial activities of the past and the present, is a useful method to overcome the fiscal illusion.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.233-246
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• 2018

Korean society is experiencing an increase in multicultural families and single households. The incidence of the MERS, epidemic in 2015, and the subsequent cases of child abuse have been major shocks to Korean society. In addition, there has been a steady increase in household debt, that is in danger of causing a serious crisis in the stability of our society and the family. The current demand for increased accountability in the democratic process is becoming an important topic. There is also an increased awareness of natural disaster preparation due to local earthquakes that have caused concern. At this point, the lifelong education in the home economics education field in Korea is in line with the changes and crises of various societies. Problems related to family life that have happened in the real life of learners stand in the place of the study with preventive character. It should provide the best alternative for family, home, and society, and help to overcome the problems of life. In order for lifelong education to respond to these social changes $vis-{\grave{a}}-vis$ Home Economics Education, it is necessary to develop: 'formation and improvement education of family relationship', 'crisis prevention and management coping ability training', 'safety education', 'learning communication and consensus processes', 'consumer culture education', 'ethics education on environment and resources', 'sustainability education', 'local education of family relationship', 'crisis prevention and management coping ability training', 'safety education', 'learning communication and consensus processes', 'consumer culture education', 'ethics education on environment and resources', 'sustainability education', 'local economic activation education', and other topics of lifelong education topics related to the field of Home Economics Education are required. Consequently, various related programs should be further developed and disseminated.

• The Journal of Economics, Marketing and Management
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.17-24
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• 2016

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the relationship between Management bonuses and earnings stability of the listed companies on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). The population includes 94 firms selected through systematic sampling. The data is collected from the audited financial statements of the firms provided by TSE's website from 2009 to 2016. The results of multiple linear regression analysis show that there is a significant relationship between Management bonuses and earnings stability. The aim of this study primarily investigating the relationship between earnings stability and management bonus. In the case of this target, the next goal of this research is to develop a proposal for legislation in the domain of capital market, students and faculty as well as accounting information users provide research interests. Observations show many companies despite the decline in profitability, bonus managers to continually pay. Increase in listed companies Stock Exchange as well as the importance of communication between earnings quality and bonus managers in Financial Accounting the authors created an incentive to research about this relationship do. The results of this research could be the development of literature done in the past. Thus, more knowledge about the issue of sustainability and its relation to bonus managers the users of accounting information, accounting courses provide students and faculty.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.145-174
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• 2024

Addressing climate change necessitates evidence-based policies grounded in science. The use of forest biomass for energy production is based on a broad scientific consensus at the international level. However, some environmental groups in South Korea are opposing this system of energy production. Through this study, the authors aim to reduce unnecessary confusion and foster an atmosphere conducive to meaningful evidence-based policies. We have classified the issue into eight categories: biological carbon cycle, carbon debt, nature-based solutions, air emissions, cascading principles and sustainability certification, forest environmental impacts, climate change litigation, and the behavior of environmental groups and public perception. Consequently, the following key points were derived: (1) the actions of some environmental groups seem to follow a similar pattern to denialist behavior that denies climate change and climate science; (2) the quality of evidence for campaigns that oppose the use of forest biomass for energy production is low, with a tendency to overgeneralize information, high uncertainty, and difficulty in finding new claims.; (3) most of the public believes that forest biomass energy is necessary, and the governments of major countries are aware of its importance. Significantly, Forest biomass for energy is based on an overwhelming level of scientific consensus recognized internationally.