This study examines whether a debt-to-GDP threshold exists in the public debt and economic growth relationship for 20 Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries from 1990 to 2016 using the threshold estimation technique. The empirical results reveal that there is a threshold effect in the public debt and economic growth relationship. The MENA region’s debt-to-GDP threshold value as a developing region is lower than the debt threshold computed by earlier studies for developing countries. We found that the effect of public debt on economic growth is significant and positive only below the threshold value of debt-to-GDP. More precisely, debt has a promoting influence on economic growth when the debt is less than 58% of the GDP. This finding indicates that the relationship between public debt and economic growth is contingent on the debt-to-GDP ratio. Importantly, policymakers need to be more prudent when establishing a policy regarding debt issues.

When the government creates state-owned enterprises (SOEs), one of the primary purposes is to reduce its financial burden in the long run, also called financial sustainability. Nonetheless, previous research has pointed out that SOEs struggle to achieve financial sustainability due to government intervention. In this study, we examine the relationship between the financial sustainability of SOEs and government intervention in Malaysia. We take a novel approach, using share ownership to measure government intervention. Our results show that the threshold effect of government ownership on financial sustainability in Malaysia is around 27%. The findings prove that the SOEs of an emerging country could reach financial sustainability only if the government ownership is below the threshold. Finally, this study discusses the policy implications of our findings for SOEs. The government of Malaysia should propose a road map to gradually reduce its ownership of SOEs below the threshold.

Most countries have suffered from prolonged budget deficits over the past two decades. This situation has made researchers and policymakers aware of the challenges to debt sustainability. This study investigates the threshold effect of institutional quality on debt sustainability in a panel of 82 countries, focussing on various threshold effects at different income levels. All the countries selected for this study fell under the categories of high income (HI), upper middle income (UMI), and lower-middle and low income (LMLI) based on the World Bank classifications. The dynamic threshold panel regression results indicate the presence of a threshold effect of institutional quality on the fiscal reaction function (including debt sustainability and cyclical fiscal policy) in all the countries with different income levels. In HI countries, fiscal adjustment weakens if institutional quality surpasses the threshold value of institutional quality. The fiscal adjustment in UMI countries is similar to that in HI countries but statistically insignificant. By contrast, governments in LMLI countries can promote sustainable debt if their institutional quality exceeds the threshold value. Thus, policymakers in LMLI countries need to prioritise their efforts to raise the level of institutional quality to promote debt sustainability.

A new financing alternative, known as crowdfunding, has expanded rapidly. Not all crowdfunding projects or campaigns can successfully reach the desired funding amount. Many studies have shown that social capital is a determinant of crowdfunding success, and some of it could be applied to the education domain. This study investigates the influence of the multidimensional social capital on the donation-based crowdfunding within the scope of educational campaigns belonging to higher education institutions students. This study uses the primary data extracted from the Skolafund crowdfunding site, a specialised third-party platform for higher education. This study, using the theory of multidimensional social capital as the theoretical foundation, develops a logit model linking all three social capital dimensions. The findings imply that only two social capital dimensions, namely structural and relational, are significant factors influencing the crowdfunding success likelihood. This study also finds that campaigns with lower funding targets are more likely to succeed. The practical implications of this study suggest the students should leverage their social capital to increase the fundraising amount. Higher education institutions also should consider to set up their crowdfunding platforms quickly or encourage students to utilise a third-party platform, such as Skolafund.

This study investigated the asymmetric impact of fiscal policy on Malaysia’s stock market. It discovered that fiscal policy has no impact on the stock market performance in the long run. However, budget expansion boosted the stock market return, while budget contraction worsened it in the short run. Therefore, fund managers can adjust their portfolios based on fiscal news in the short run to maximize their returns.