HRMARS is well established journal publisher based in Pakistan. It is publishing prominent journals in social sciences since 2011.

A diversified board is increasingly essential for employee productivity and achievement. This study examines board diversity tax planning in Malaysian listed firms. The sample consists of 394 listed firms in Bursa Malaysia from 2014 to 2016. All the independent data, such as board gender, age, educational level, board size, board independence, and duality, are collected from annual reports. Effective tax rates (ETR), as a tax planning proxy, and control variables are collected from DataStream. The regression results show that board gender has a positive relationship with tax planning, while board independence has a negative one. Other independent variables such as age, educational level, board size, and duality have an insignificant relationship with tax planning. This study concludes that having females on the board encourages tax planning strategy within the firm and raises awareness towards minimising tax burdens. Less tax planning by independent directors could arise due to a lack of supervision and presence in deciding independent considerations in tax planning. The implementation of gender diversity in firms can affect tax management performance. For future research, this study recommends using actual data on tax planning expenditure that could give a more accurate effect of board diversity toward tax planning.

HRMARS is well established journal publisher based in Pakistan. It is publishing prominent journals in social sciences since 2011.

HRMARS is well established journal publisher based in Pakistan. It is publishing prominent journals in social sciences since 2011.

HRMARS is well established journal publisher based in Pakistan. It is publishing prominent journals in social sciences since 2011.

Climate change poses a growing threat to global agricultural systems, with developing economies like China facing unique challenges in balancing food security, environmental protection, and economic growth. This study examines the interplay between climate risk, fiscal environmental protection expenditures, and agricultural sustainability across 31 Chinese provinces from 2012 to 2022. Utilizing panel data analysis and a moderating effect regression model, the research quantifies the heterogeneous impacts of climate risk on agricultural sustainability, revealing a significant negative correlation in provinces with lower baseline levels of sustainable development. Conversely, the effect diminishes in regions with higher sustainability performance. A critical counterintuitive finding is that fiscal environmental protection expenditures, intended to mitigate environmental degradation, inadvertently exacerbate the adverse effects of climate risk on agricultural sustainability, suggesting potential misalignment in policy implementation. These results underscore the necessity for regionally differentiated strategies that integrate both climate adaptation and mitigation measures with sustainable agricultural practices. The study contributes to the discourse on climate-agriculture policy by highlighting China’s empirical lessons, which offer scalable insights for developing nations and analogous economies grappling with similar trade-offs between environmental governance and agricultural resilience. Ultimately, this research advocates for re-evaluating regional and fiscal policy to ensure synergistic outcomes under escalating climate challenges.