Abstract:To use the generalized beta distribution of the second kind (GB2) for the analysis of income and other positively skewed distributions, knowledge of estimation methods and the ability to compute quantities of interest from the estimated parameters are required. We review estimation methodology that has appeared in the literature, and summarize expressions for inequality, poverty, and pro-poor growth that can be used to compute these measures from GB2 parameter estimates. An application to data from China and Indonesia is provided.

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Data for measuring poverty are frequently available in a summary form that describes the proportion of income or expenditure for each of a number of population proportions. While various discrete poverty measures can be applied directly to data in this limited form, they typically require an arbitrary approach to within‐group interpolation. This problem can be overcome by fitting either a parametric income distribution or a Lorenz curve to the grouped data and computing the required quantities from estimated parameters. The Lorenz curve approach is widely used by the World Bank, but can encounter problems. As an alternative, in this article we show how to calculate several poverty measures from parameters of the generalized beta income distribution, and its popular special cases. An analysis of poverty changes in countries from South and Southeast Asia is used to illustrate the methodology.

This paper analyses the formal social security systems of India and Sri Lanka. While many of the social, demographic, and economic indicators differ markedly between the countries, the structure of the social security systems, challenges, and reform directions are quite similar. Thus, the provident fund organizations in both countries need to modernize and benchmark their governance, operations, and investment policies. The dualism in their systems, which has resulted in relatively generous non-contributory pensions being provided to civil servants, also needs to be addressed. This dualism and the fiscal unsustainability of current civil service pension arrangements lend urgency to reforms in this area in the two countries. The prospects for voluntary tax-advantaged private sector schemes are encouraging, particularly in India. The conditions for reforms are more favourable now owing to hopeful signs of an end to longstanding conflict in Sri Lanka, and decade-long experience with financial sector reforms in India.

This research investigates the impact of Sustainability Reporting on Firms' Financial Performance: Special Reference to the Listed Companies in the Colombo Stock Exchange in Sri Lanka. The study evaluates the impact of economic, environmental, and social disclosures as the sustainability reporting on the firm's financial performance, including Listed Companies in Sri Lanka. It was able to identify the level of disclosures on sustainability performance is lower than the expectation and compare foreign listed entities. As the sustainability disclosure is not a mandatory part to be provided in annual reports and voluntarily disclosing the performances are very low. Thus, 102 listed companies with Sustainability reporting of selected for the analysis purpose from 138 listed companies. All these companies follow the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 guidelines. This study considers secondary data collected from the annual reports, both from the Financial and Non-Financial reporting. The descriptive analysis, correlation tests, and regression analysis have conducted for analyzing purposes. The findings show a moderate positive relationship between the sustainability reporting, including economic, environmental, and social disclosures and ROA on financial performance. Thus, the consideration either on sustainability performance or on financial performance a company can achieve a moderate positive vibe of the year.