The study showed the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare expenses including the price of medicines, protective equipment, medical devices, healthcare facilities, and food. A self-administered questionnaire was used as the data collection tool and 400 people from different Bangladesh divisions (Dhaka, Chittagong, Barisal, Khulna, Mymensingh, Rajshahi, and Sylhet) participated in this study. Multiple regression analysis was used to estimate the impact of independent variables on dependent variables. R programming environment was used to perform the statistical analysis. Cronbach’s alpha was used for determination of reliability and found acceptable internal consistency. The price of protective equipment (POPE), the price of a healthcare facilities (POHCF), the consequences of rising prices (CRP), and COVID-19 were independent variables. COVID-19 (CRP) was a dependent variable that measured COVID-19’s impact (IC). The results of the regression analysis indicated a positive and significant impact of POPE, POHCF, and CRP on IC. However, the variance explained was still low (54.4%). Bangladesh should control the prices of all goods and services because of their influence on the impact of COVID-19. Future research should be conducted to discover other variables that affect the impact of COVID-19.

The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between ease of doing business score (EDBS) and cost of business start-up procedures (CBS), age dependency ratio (ADR), strength of legal rights index (SLRI), time required to get electricity (TRGE), domestic credit to private sector (DCPS), and start-up procedures to register a business (SPRB). Since 2004, the World Bank evaluates 190 economies based on business regulatory indicators ignoring other factors that may be related to business environment. This paper investigates new factors related to EDBS ignored by the World Bank since 2004. The results of correlation analysis show a negative and significant correlation between EDB and CBS, ADR, TRGE, and SPRB. Nevertheless, a positive and significant correlation was found between EDB and SLRI and DCPS. The linear regression model finds that SLRI and DGPS affected EDB positively and significantly. However, TRGE and SPRB affected negatively to EDB. Asian policymakers should reinforce SLRI and increase DCPS. However, they should also reduce TRGE and SPRB to improve EDB. Further research should be conducted on other regions and test also other factors.

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Bhagwati developed a hypothesis that expected economic growth (EG) enhancing impact of exports (EXP) and foreign direct investment (FDI) interaction. This paper checks the validity of the Bhagwati hypothesis by examining the moderation and mediation effect of EXP in the relationship between FDI and Gross domestic product for Sub Sahara Africa countries (SSA) during 2018 period. To achieve the article purpose, normality test, robust regression, and causal analysis using bootstrapping procedure were performed using R programming environment. The correlation results revealed a strong correlation between FDI-EXP-GDP.  The coefficient of the robust regression of the interaction term of EXP and FDI was found positive, and statistically significant. The result of the mediation analysis showed that indirect relationship of FDI was found positive and significant whereas direct relationship was not significant.  The results are consistent with the previous studies, theory, and Bhagwati hypothesis. Theorical and practical implications were presented.