Blockchain technology, a distributed and decentralized ledger, has gained significant prominence in the sphere of information technology for introducing new innovations in international trade. It ensures safety and can reduce trade costs by removing the middleman from the trade process. Studies examining the effects of blockchain on international trade are scarce. This research aims to fill this research gap. By using time series world data for the period 2009–2018, this study empirically examines the link between blockchain and international trade. It uses a cointegration test and a generalized linear model (GLM) test to analyse the data. The robust findings of this research reveal that blockchain has positive effects on international trade. The findings further displays that blockchain accelerates and facilitates international trade and that there exists a unidirectional causality from blockchain to international trade. The research findings are of great significance for policymakers in developing policies to foster the use of blockchain applications as a facilitator of international trade.

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The issue of political stability and the shadow economy is the most vital concern for sustainable development. However, the relationship between them is yet to be explored. Particularly, in the context of Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation Countries (BIMSTEC) countries, there are no studies that have examined the influence of political stability on shadow economy. This study fills these gaps. Using panel data from 1998 to 2015, this study empirically investigated whether and how political stability affects shadow economy. Findings indicate that political stability has significant negative effects on the size of shadow economy. We also observed that regulation freedom, fiscal freedom, business freedom, trade freedom, government integrity, government spending and gross domestic product (GDP) growth have significant negative effects, while unemployment has significant positive effects on the shadow economy. Findings of this study imply that governments and policymakers should make efforts to ensure greater political stability in their countries, which will lessen the size of shadow economy that, in turn, will accelerate economic growth. The present study adds to empirical literature of the analogous issue by confirming (or else) the findings of past studies carried out across the world. The findings indicate that there exists a positive association between the extent of political stability and the shadow economy for BIMSTEC countries.

The purpose of the study is investigated the efficiency of personal finance in terms of financial gain and advancement. Despite the fact that there is an abundance of research on personal finance literacy in the literature, there is a scarcity of research on the effect of personal finance on financial growth in the literature, particularly in Bangladesh. With the passage of time, the amount of national income and savings in the country has been steadily increasing throughout time. Despite the fact that its frequency has fluctuated, there have been no official studies conducted on the usefulness of personal finance in terms of financial development. Time-series data over the period 2001-2019 of Bangladesh has been employed in this article. By using Generalized Linear Model (GLM), this study observes the effects of personal finance on financial development. This study observes positive effect of personal finance on financial development. Also, this study also finds that market capitalization and trade openness positively as well as inflation and interest rate negatively effects on development of Bangladesh's financial system. Likewise, uni-direction causal relationship observes between the issues by employing Toda-Yamamoto Granger Causality. Similarly, Co-integration results suggest that long-run relationship among the variables. The observations of this paper suggest that policy makers and government of the country should make effort to ensure secure individual savings, which will increase personal finance in market, which in turn will increase financial development as well.

A stable and healthy insurance industry plays a vital role in sustaining an economy resistant to economic shocks by providing an efficient risk-transition mechanism. There is a relative scarcity of research inspecting the impact of insurers’ financial insolvency on the profitability of insurance firms. Employing 2011–2019 panel data of 16 non-life insurance companies operating in Bangladesh, this research endeavors to examine the impacts of insurers’ financial insolvency on the profitability of insurance companies measured by return ratios, return on assets (ROA), and return on equity (ROE). Fixed-effect regression outcome implies that insurers’ financial insolvency has a significant adverse influence on non-life insurance companies’ profitability. Further findings indicate that financial leverage, technical provision, age, and inflation have a noteworthy adverse influence on profitability. The outcomes of this research are of greater significance for policymakers in tackling insolvency and formulating policies to boost the growth of insurance profitability. In addition, this study aims to serve as a benchmark for other countries’ insurance industries to emulate recovery strategies from financial insolvency.