Purpose: This study attempts to explain the impact of Fintech on the Asian economies through two main indicators, inflation and unemployment over the period 2011-2014-2017.Design/methodology/approach: This study uses panel data regression models to explain the relationship between Fintech, inflation as an indicator of currency circulation and unemployment since Fintech has disrupted the labor market.Findings: Empirical results show a consistently strong and positive relationship between the development of financial technologies and the reduction of inflation and unemployment unless these technologies are actively used. Digital finance has become a new driver of economic development. Therefore, governors should not only improve their economies but also expand their information and communication technologies to develop their digital infrastructure, especially for businesses.Originality/value: The present study contributes to the existing literature on the impact of disruptive digital innovation on the socioeconomic development of emerging countries. The empirical evidence highlights the importance of distinguishing between active and passive uses of Fintech in order to anticipate its economic impact.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of economic factors on foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into Asian region before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approach: The study used the generalized method of moments (GMM) technique to examine the impact of economic growth, domestic investment and trade openness on FDI in the Asian region, in two periods from 1996 to 2018 and from 2019 to 2020.Findings: In the pre-COVID-19 period, the estimated result shows that the economic growth, domestic investment, imports and exports positively impact FDI. In the post-COVID-19 period, the FDI is influenced by the strength of the economic characteristics of the region. The main findings indicate that economic growth has a positive and significant effect on FDI inflows into Asia. The findings also show that the economic resilience to attract FDI in Asia is significantly affected by economic growth and positively affected by trade openness and government responses during the pandemic.Originality/value: The study suggests the Asian governments increasing the domestic investment and improving the quality of trade openness.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the dynamic relationship between 19 pandemic and government actions, such as governmental response index and economic support packages.Design/methodology/approach: The authors use a panel dataset of 10 American and Latin countries for the period spanning from January 2020 to April 2021 to analyze the effect of government actions on stock market returns. The authors provide robust test results that improve the understanding of the impact of the pandemic on stock market indices through the break-up structure method and the new measure of Covid-19 extracted from Narayan et al. (2021) study.Findings: Empirical results show the harmful effect of the corona virus on stock prices, hence the risk adverse behavior of investors. On the other hand, the quantitative approach reveals that the positive impact of government actions is degraded during Covid-19.Originality/value: This article highlight that government actions may be effective in reducing new infections but could generate perverse economic impact through increasing uncertainty. The authors conclude that the adjustment of macroeconomic factors and the integration of financial news improve the forecasting performance of the model based on health news.

This article analyzes the complexity of the linkages between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and firm performance in Morocco and to decompose this complexity through a bidirectional sense of causality. Using data surveyed from 74 Moroccan listed firms, we conduct an econometric modeling to measure this relationship bilaterally and to investigate the underlying factors behind this association. The empirical study proves the existence of a positive association between CSR and firm performance in both directions in the Moroccan context and suggests that the more social enterprises are, the more they achieve better financial results. The mutual linkage between social and financial aspects allows us to draw some managerial implications and set up further research directions.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the changing relationship between technology and economic activity in MENA countries.Design/methodology/approach: The generalized method of moments (GMM) was applied to explore the presence of dynamic causality between technology, inflation, unemployment, foreign direct investment, trade opening, gross fixed capital formation and economic growth for 14 MENA countries before and after COVID-19.Findings: Empirical evidence shows that the economic predictor variables change signs and impact negatively the economic growth as a result of the adverse consequences of the MENA health crisis. More interestingly, there is a unique, positive, meaningful relationship between ICT and economic growth.Originality/value: The results show that economic resilience in MENA is significantly affected by digital infrastructure during the epidemic crisis. The authors conclude that macroeconomic adjustment and innovation improve the predictive performance of the health news model. Countries could take strong measures to support new strategies to strengthen their innovation competitiveness.