Investments support for Sustainable Development Goal 7: Research gaps in the context of post-COVID-19 recovery

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a meta-analysis of the relationship between determinant factors and tax evasion based on deterrence approach. Using the meta-analysis method, each statistical result of empirical studies is converted into r-pearson as standardized effect size, and then synthesized into a mean effect size in order to increase power and to resolve uncertainty. Theoretically, increasing audit, tax rate and tax penalty will decrease tax evasion. However, the results show that only tax rate has a significant impact on tax evasion. Synthesizing totally 478 outcomes from articles published between 1978 and 2018, there is a robust conclusion that decreasing tax rate is an effective tool in combating tax evasion. On the other hand, audit and penalty are not significant in influencing tax evasion. In addition, the results of heterogeneity analysis suggest that national culture and income level of the country are useful in explaining the impact of audit, tax rate and tax penalty on tax evasion. These findings should be of interest to policymakers. First, instead of sacrificing more resources in conducting audit or imposing more penalty, tax authorities should consider setting the tax rate as low as possible to diminish tax evasion. Second, considering that culture and income level influence the impact of audit and penalty on tax evasion, policymakers should consider national cultural values and income level condition when designing audit techniques and setting penalty structures.

Research on corporate governance has been conducted extensively over the past few decades. However, the result of various studies failed to produce conclusive insight. This study is aimed at identifying, classifying, analyzing and interpreting previous research on corporate governance in Asia by using meta-analytical approach. By using the HOMA (Hedges-Olkin Meta-Analytical) procedures, the current study collected eighty articles from journals ranging from 1999 until 2017. Data were gathered from empirical scientific papers. Through rigorous research process, the current study found that most previous research on corporate governance in Asia observed the patterns of influence of various types of ownership structure and board characteristics on corporate performance. Ownership by family, government, and management tend to have a negative impact on performance, whilst institutional ownership and foreign ownership show positive effect on performance. The study reveals inconsistent result for frequency of board meetings, existence of family members on board, outside director, and board independence towards performance. Similar finding appeared for the relationship of performance to women on board and CEO duality. CGPI as the Corporate Governance Perception index and board size were found to have a positive consistency on performance. Apart from limitations of the study, the result suggests that there exists institutional and environmental specificity in the study of corporate governance in Asia that may be different from other context of study so that future researcher need to take a precaution of this matter.

Ukraine is the only major agricultural country whose production of biofuels has declined since 2010. Nevertheless, it has set a target of 11.5 percent of primary energy supply from biomass, biofuels and waste by 2035. Agricultural land needed to produce biofuels feedstock is calculated for two scenarios based on its current 11.5 percent target and previous 5.0 percent target specified as a share of transport energy consumption. The export orientation of Ukraine’s crop sector and resulting foreign currency earnings pose trade-offs if crops are diverted from exports to biofuel feedstocks. Given these trade-offs, policy options for developing a biofuels industry while satisfying Ukraine’s export and domestic markets are to (1) bring land not currently cultivated into production and (2) increase yield. Both options are found to have substantial potential.