The effect of governance structure choice on after-tax structural efficiency of cross-border residential real estate investment: Evidence from a Berlin–Montreal family office portfolio

Economic informality remains a critical challenge in Latin America, affecting both sustainable development and tax equity. This study analyzes the relationship between tax culture and willingness to formalize among traders in Peru’s main wholesale food market. Using a quantitative, non-experimental, correlational and cross-sectional approach, 300 traders were surveyed using an expert-validated questionnaire with tested reliability (Cronbach’s alpha of 0.87 for tax culture and 0.83 for formalization). The findings show a significant positive correlation (rs = 0.914, p < 0.01) between tax culture and the probability of formalization. The dimensions of tax knowledge (rs = 0.681), tax awareness (rs = 0.701), and tax compliance (rs = 0.745) were also positively associated with the inclination to formalize. While 44.3% of respondents acknowledged that access to tax information strengthened their tax culture, only 30.3% claimed to regularly comply with their tax obligations. The study concludes that promoting formalization requires educational initiatives and public policies that strengthen the tax culture, simplify procedures and build institutional trust. It also highlights the need to integrate effective state and local tax systems and to develop legislation aligned with the realities of local government, thus promoting the inclusion of taxpayers in the tax system.

VUСA is a chaotic and rapidly changing business environment that, based on the variability, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity of the modern world, transforms the approach of banks to the analysis of financial stability. The aim of the paper is to improve tools for monitoring the impact of VUCA-world conditions on the financial stability of banks, namely a model for studying and analyzing the impact of the modern business space “VUCA” on the financial stability of the country's banks. To test the model, the method of constructing regression equations in multifactor regression analysis is used. For this study, data from some Eastern European countries (Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova) were used, and time series data were used for 10 years from 2010 to 2019.
Having considered the definition of “VUCA-world conditions”, the model of modern business space “VUCA” was developed when analyzing the activity of banks in the studied countries. Drivers, consequences, requirements and macroeconomic indicators of the countries’ activities in the VUСA-world conditions are determined. The VUCA-world conditions also consider the study of key macroeconomic indicators that allow building long-term relationships throughout the value chain. The analysis of the studied Eastern European countries showed that with the increase of factors of GDP growth, GNI per capita growth, research and development costs, foreign direct investment, and net inflow of 1%, the effective ratio of bank capital and assets also increases. The assessment, in contrast to the existing ones, makes it possible to consider the impact of the macroeconomic environment of banks on their financial stability.

Companies and investors in emerging markets have started paying attention to ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) issues. There has been a growing demand for aligning ESG disclosure of companies to UN SDGs (United Nations Sustainable Development Goals), so understanding how the firm-level ESG affects the country-level SDG is very important for evaluating the advances in ESG and SDG implementation in emerging markets. This study examines the linkage between firm-level ESG disclosures and their relationship with country-level SDG scores over ten years for three emerging countries: India, China, and Brazil. The analysis of 1,500 top-listed firms in these countries reveals an increasing trend of firms going for ESG disclosures and increased ESG scores over the years in the three markets. Out of the total sample, almost 75% of firms make ESG disclosures in Brazil, followed by 54% in India and 32% in China. Additionally, companies in all these countries tend to emphasize governance-related disclosures more, with Brazil having higher ESG disclosures than India and China. The correlation and causality tests indicate a significant positive correlation between mean ESG scores and country-specific SDG scores. The Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality tests provide stronger linkages between firm-specific Environment scores and SDG scores, indicating that a firm’s environment disclosures translate into higher SDG scores. However, the same is not valid for Social and Governance factors. These findings have important implications given the global attention on the linkages between ESG disclosure and SDG score.

Acknowledgments
The financial and infrastructure support provided by FORE School of Management, New Delhi in completing this paper is gratefully acknowledged.