THE JOURNAL OF GOVERNANCE AND REGULATION: VOLUME 8, ISSUE 2 HAS BEEN PUBLISHED
The editorial team is delighted to present a new issue of the the Journal of Governance and Regulation. The recent issue is devoted to the matters of tax policy, competitiveness, digital disruption, the IT skills of graduates, the relationship between stock market and business cycles and municipal governance. The full issue of the journal is available following the link
Issue 2 of Volume 8 of the journal opens with “Tax policy, tax disharmony and tax competition” by Alkiviadis Karagiorgos, George Drogalas, Grigorios Lazos, and Ioanna Fotiadou. This article analyses the delicate aspects of tax harmonization in the European Union, the challenges to implement such a policy with a special focus on the structural problems of the Greek tax system. Tax policy management and harmonization have always been a topic of concern for the European Union and its member countries as it encapsulates the provocative idea of the common fiscal policy (Kopits, 1992). This paper contributes remarkably to the previous research by Drogalas, Lazos, Koutoupis, and Pazarskis (2019); Duarte and Barros (2018); Brodzka, Biernacki, and Chodorek (2017); Jianfu and Sudibyo (2016).
The second article of this issue is “Consumer Price Index (CPI) as a competitiveness inflation measure: Evidence from Jordan” by Osama Samih Shaban, Mohammad Al-Attar, Zaid Al Hawatmah, and Nafez Nimer Ali. The discussion of international trade performance is relevant for small open economies like the one of Jordan, as any change in imports or exports may influence the economic growth and per capita income of the country. The level of competitiveness becomes even more important during years of tight economic conditions or a global downward economic climate. This issue is studied in this paper with a special focus on the competitiveness of Jordanian economy along with the real exchange rate (Abugamea, 2010). Hence, their in between relationship is of significant importance.
The third article is “Disruption, regulatory theory and China: What surveillance and profiling can teach the modern regulator” by Brendan Walker-Munro. This study is rather notable as elegantly addresses the issue that as emerging technologies drive new business and service models, governments must rapidly create, modify, and enforce regulations. In the wake of artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data analytics etc., regulatory leaders are faced with a key challenge: how to best protect citizens creating a sense of normality in peoples’ day to day life.
The fourth article of the issue is “The impact of IT level of knowledge on workreadiness from the accounting graduate perspective: Evidence from Greece” by Dimitra Karagiorgou, Dimitra Seretidou, and Antonios Stavropoulos. The authors provide an empirical study in recognition of the growing role of information technology in teaching/practicing accounting and emphasize on one long-lasting debate in higher education, that is, a university education should lay the foundations for a lifelong commitment by graduates to learning and professional development.
The fifth article is “An analysis of the impacts of macroeconomic fluctuations on China’s stock market” by Lin Lingnan. This topic is well studied in the past and there is lots of evidence in the related literature. In this specific empirical study, the author highlights for the case of China, what is often observed that stock prices tend to fluctuate with economic news, and this observation is supported by empirical evidence showing that macroeconomic variables have explanatory power for stock returns. This paper contributes to the previous papers about Chinese stock market by Xu and Zhao (2014); Qu, Fong, and Oliver (2012); Hatemi-J, Singh, and Nandha (2011).
The final manuscript of this issue is “Do municipal mergers work? Evidence from municipalities in Greece” by Michail Pazarskis, Spyridon Goumas, Andreas Koutoupis, and Konstantinos Konstantinidis. The purpose of this study is the accounting evaluation of Greek municipalities after the implementation of the merging program (Kallikratis scheme) in the period of economic crisis. The results of this study showed that mandatory municipal mergers program was more effective in allowing municipalities to reap the benefits that come with large size. Despite the reduced state financial support achieved better results in terms of liquidity and short-term debt payments following a tightening policy throughout the years of the financial crisis in Greece.
We hope that you enjoy these articles and find the ideas in them stimulating. We are grateful for our authors, readers, reviewers, associate editors, and the production and support team of Virtus Interpress.
