Mamdouh Abdulaziz Saleh Al-Faryan

This study examines the influence of corporate-specific factors and external factors on capital adequacy of Indian banks listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). This study used a GMM estimation (pooled, fixed, and random) for the period 2009–2018 to study thirty-seven Indian listed commercial banks. Banks’ capital adequacy (CAAD) is used as a dependent variable measured by equity to total assets. While corporate specifics factors include bank size, asset quality, liquidity ratio, deposit ratio, asset management, operating efficiency, return on assets, net interest margin, and non-interest income, external factors are economic activity, exchange rate, and interest rate. The results of this paper found that the deposit ratio, asset management, bank size, and operating efficiency are the main factors influencing banks’ CAAD of Indian listed firms during the period of the study. The outcomes revealed that the deposits ratio, asset management, and bank size have a negative and significant influence on banks’ CAAD, while operating efficiency has a positive and significant impact on CAAD. In terms of external indicators, the results revealed that gross domestic product and interest rate have a negative and significant effect on CAAD of Indian listed banks, except that the exchange rate has a positive and significant influence on CAAD.

Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank the Arab Open University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for supporting this research paper.

A huge body of research analyzed panic buying during the pandemic; however, there is a dearth of studies scrutinizing social media triggering panic buying of drugs and medical supplies. This study assesses the impact of social media on panic buying of drugs and medical supplies during COVID-19. An online survey was conducted in the Delhi-NCR region (India) using a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire. The data were collected from the respondents (N = 250) who were youngsters considering their pivotal role in the battle against COVID-19. Regression analysis in SPSS was used to process the data. The results manifested a strong impact of social media on buying behavior during COVID-19. Perceived scarcity (p = .000), perceived quality (p = .000), perceived cost (p = .000) of medical supplies, and fear-of-missing-out (p = .000) were found to strongly influence panic buying. Further, perceived scarcity was found to have a significant impact on FOMO (p = .0400). At the same time, perceived cost also had a substantial effect on perceived quality (p = .0100). The results indicated that perceived scarcity did not affect perceived quality (p = .0600). People indulged in hoarding during COVID-19 to remove their fear of missing out. The perception of scarcity of medicines, the quality degradation that may happen later, or the likelihood that costs may increase in the future contributed fairly to people stockpiling. Perceived scarcity also induced fear of missing out, while perception about the quality was dependent on perceived cost.

The study investigates the impact of corruption, market capitalization, exports, and foreign direct investment on the wealth of 178 countries worldwide. Thus, the paper uses univariate and multivariate regressions to observe the nexus among exports, foreign direct investment, market capitalization, corruption, and wealth of nations. The findings indicate that corruption poses a significant hindrance to prosperity and development, as evaluated with respect to the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. Additionally, the results showed that the world’s poorest nations are becoming less corrupt while the wealthiest ones are growing more corrupt. The paper also concludes that exports and market capitalization are critical for prosperity and development when combined with lower corruption levels. Furthermore, the analysis also suggests that inbound foreign direct investment favors the development of emerging countries. Surprisingly, market capitalization and exports had little impact on wealth of countries before the crisis period. Moreover, integrity also fosters economic growth. Overall, the study concludes that the causes of wealth are country-specific.

Acknowledgments
I thank the editor and the reviewers for the helpful comments and suggestions that significantly enhanced this work. The usual disclaimer applies.