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The COVID-19 has exposed the whole world to severe consequences and uncertainties, which cannot be only defined as mortality but also in terms of people’s daily livelihood and economic despair. In addition, enterprises are in extreme distress and facing enormous challenges due to strong containment measures taken by governments for mitigating coronavirus outbreak. Therefore, in finding ways to adapt to restrictive lockdown rules and socialdistancing practices, leveraging ecommerce is rapidly implemented by businesses to boost sales and maintain public safety amid the epidemic. This research aims to measure the impacts of COVID-19 on the online shopping behaviors of Danang’s citizens (Vietnam) by applying a quantitative model. Online questionnaires were released and recorded with 429 respondents in Danang city during the second outbreak of coronavirus in Vietnam. Precisely, the analysis results present that SARSCoV2 factors including policy barriers, disease prevention, perceived severity and cyberchondria, influence behaviors of online shopping, but inferiorly compared to factors of economic benefits. Especially in this article, a new theoretical contribution is proposed by adding a policy barrier factor with three components from authors. The empirical results also indicate the effects of policy barrier from Danang’s government on eshopping behaviors.

Keywords: Covid-19; Online shopping behavior; Economic Benefits; Policy barriers.

JEL classification: C10; C40; D10

In the literature on sustainable investing, most research studies assume normal market conditions. However, research is limited on the value of sustainable investments during and after distressed market conditions. Given the rapid evolution of the Covid-19 global pandemic and its impact on the economies around the world, our objective in this paper is to address the gap in the existing literature by examining the specific role of ESG investing in China amid and after the marketwide financial crisis in response to the Great Lockdown from the coronavirus outbreak. We contribute to the literature by answering two key research questions: (i) Can ESG investing in equity indexes outperform their market benchmarks (i.e., can ESG investing beat the market) in China during ‘normal’ times versus ‘crisis’ periods? (ii) Can investing in ESG equity indexes improve portfolio diversification during times of crises and beyond? From our study, we find that ESG investing in equity indexes has the potential to increase riskadjusted returns during both normal and crisis periods for the case of China. Moreover, the role of ESG investing in portfolio diversification is strengthened in the postcrisis  period. Our research findings draw implication on the value of ESG investing during and after distressed market conditions.

JEL classification: G11, Q56.

The Covid-19 pandemic and associated counter measures have caused a number shortand longterm socioeconomic consequences. This study aims at evaluating the impact of the above on informal wage employees in Sri Lanka. By employing both descriptive and regression techniques to nationally representative labour force survey data, a number of key findings were dervived. Informal employees account for nearly half of the total informal workforce and majority of them employed in sectors whose labour demand is highly elastic. There is a wage penalty factor for informal employees and wage penalty factor is much higher for lowskilled informal employees that that of their highskilled counterparts. Above findings imply that informal employees are at a higher risk towards losing jobs and earnings due to the pandemic. Some of the negative impacts are already visible in recent data. Appropriate policy measures are urgently needed in improving labour market conditions of the above group.

Keywords: Covid-19, Labour Market, Informal employees, Impact,

Sri Lanka

Decision making has never been an easy task, especially where capital funding of an investment portfolio is concerned. This has been the case at Selfless Investments PVT (Ltd) where the organisation has a three asset portfolio namely; Mad zimbabwe Asphalt, Seagwick Farm and Thabo’s Farm. The sole purpose of this study was focused on this organisation’s capital budgeting problem; where there has not been a clear allocation of funds to each of the three assets in the portfolio. The researcher furthermore had to incorporate the stochastic nature of the roadconstruction bidding and awarding process. On setting the objectives of the research, we applied binomial logistics regression using SPSS to calculate the probability of obtaining the tender award, which resulted to 14.6% ceteris paribus. Thus we would expect the organisation to develop a competitive edge when bidding, inclusive of the job characteristics considered by the tenderer. We deduced, using Microsoft Excel, the Markowitz Portfolio Optimisation in order to calculate the weights which should be allocated to each of the assets in the portfolio. Madzimbabwe Asphalt was found to be more stable of the other assets in the portfolio in terms of return. Of our available capital, allocate 59.83% to Madzimbabwe Asphalt, 33.06% to Seagwick farm and 7.11% to Thabo’s farm. Moreover, the researcher calculated the efficient frontier, which would aid the decision maker as to which portfolio combination to opt for. The optimal portfolio combination had a total portfolio risk of 872.74 and expected return of 66,609.89. Thus we concluded that the more diverse a portfolio is, the less risky it is, hence, one should not place their eggs in one basket, since placing them in one basket would mean that dropping the basket results in all eggs breaking at once.

Keywords: Capital budgeting; portfolio; risk; Markowitz Portfolio Theory, optimisation, return.

This study investigates the significance of the macroeconomy and institutions for educational outcomes in Africa. The annual panel data used in the study covers the period from 1995 to 2016 for 48 African countries. The study shows that the macroeconomy in the form of GDP per capita, natural resources rents, remittances and migration have significant positive effects on educational outcomes while lending interest rate and inflation have significant negative effects. The study further shows that institutions in the form of corruption has significant negative effects on educational outcomes while political stability has significant positive effects. Overall, the study shows that a conducive macroeconomic and institutional environment is critical for education.

Keywords: Macroeconomy; institutions; educational outcomes
JEL Classification: G21, C23, E62, F30, D14, G21, O100

The aim of this research is to determine if the share prices of 10 listed energy companies in the Philippine Stock Market are correlated with the wholesale electricity prices at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) and the prices of fuel input such as coal, natural gas, and crude oil. With significant correlations, the next phase is to formulate significant models in order to account for the significant association and the effect of the wholesale electricity prices and fuel input prices on the share prices of these 10 listed companies. With the enactment of Republic Act 9136 known as the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) in 2001, the Philippine power industry changed from a stateled model to a free market model. The 10 listed companiesare Aboitiz Power Energy, Alsons Consolidated  Resources, Basic Energy Corporation, Energy Development Corporation, First Gen Corporation, First Philippine Holdings, Salcon Power Corporation, Manila Electric Company, Phinma Energy, and Vivant Corporation. The spirit behind the reform act is to patch up the profuse bleeding of the national government from the debts contracted by the government of Ferdinand Marcos in behalf of the National Power Corporation (NPC), a stateowned and controlled corporation, which was tasked to generate power and transmit it through its high voltage lines to cooperatives and industrial users. The EPIRA Law aims to perpetuate a power industry that could sustain itself in the midst of an expanding demand for electricity through the private sector. In order to sustain this, these companies should have continuous capitalization in the midst of competition as envisioned in a freemarket model. This research found significant correlations and significant models in regard to the effect of wholesale electricity prices and fuel price input on the share prices of 10 generating companies listed in the Philippine Stocks Exchange.

Keywords: WESM, Wholesale Electricity Prices, Ex ante, Ex post, EPIRA Law, Share Prices.

JEL Classification: G11, G13, G17

The objective of this paper is to study the impact of different instruments of monetary and macroprudential policy on financial stability, using a sample of 48 countries, over the period 2000-2016. Based on the recent survey conducted by the IMF in 2016, we extend the database created by Cerutti, et al. (2015), considering macroprudential instruments through a binary approach. The results show the effectiveness of both monetary and macroprudential policies in reducing credit growth and so, in stabilizing financial system. However, macroprudential regulation is more effective than monetary policy, given the number of monetary policy objectives and the shortterm interest rate limit. Macroprudential tools appear to be more effective for emerging countries, given the degree of openness and limited external financing possibilities; these tools are used to limit excessive lending. For advanced countries that are more financially open,with more diversified and sophisticated external financial sources, macroprudential tools seem to be less effective and difficult to monitor, they are used tocontrol mortgage borrowing and foreignexchange loans.

Keywords: Macroprudential policies, Monetary policy, Effectiveness, Procyclicality, Financial stability,

JEL Classification: E43, E58, G18, G28