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Abstract
This paper highlights scholarly neglect of political legitimacy, the idea of a state's use of power in ways acceptable to its citizens. We argue that political legitimacy affects a state's ability to formulate and implement its policies, thus affecting governance. Our paper provides the first empirical evidence of the positive relationship between political legitimacy and governance. We combine novel cross-sectional data on political legitimacy and several governance indicators from 66 countries. Our results show that a one-standard-deviation increase in the legitimacy score increases the rule of law indicator by about one-third standard deviation. These results are robust across OLS, an instrumental variable method, and several other governance indicators. Moreover, our results reveal that in the presence of greater trust, political legitimacy has an enhanced impact on governance.

SUMMARYIn the wake of the global financial crisis that resulted in many business closures and given the long‐term problem of population aging in advanced countries and poverty in low‐income countries, it has become important to investigate whether new business formation by women entrepreneurs is a path to prosperity even when countries experience low fertility rates. Existing country studies suggest that female entrepreneurship can have favorable development outcomes through the channels of employment, innovation and welfare, but this paper undertakes a holistic cross‐country analysis on the determinants of female entrepreneurship, exploring the role of fertility rates in affecting female entrepreneurial outcomes. We find that the impact of fertility rate is negative and significant in influencing entrepreneurship. But factors like greater tertiary enrollment of females and higher ratios of female to male labor force participation rates can offset the negative impact of fertility rate and in fact can make the impact positive. Additionally, greater access to informal finance makes female enrollment more effective in mitigating the negative impact of fertility rate.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to test the relationship between state fragility and transparency. A state is deemed fragile when it falters in its ability to manage conflict and in its capacity to deliver basic functions and implement public policy. Although minimizing fragility of the state is undoubtedly an integral component of economic development, there is a huge variation across countries in terms of where they stand with regard to fragility. Further, it also explores how educational attainment affects the relationship between state fragility and transparency.Design/methodology/approachUsing several robust estimation methodologies and a relatively new database on transparency, the authors find that higher levels of transparency lower state fragility. They reply on fixed effect estimators, lagged one period and five periods and system GMM estimators as part of our identification strategy.FindingsUsing several robust estimation methodologies and a relatively new database on transparency, the authors find that a higher level of transparency lowers state fragility. Greater and free flow of information empowers the populace, restores trust in government, increases participation in the political arena and, thus, reduces state fragility. This paper additionally shows that higher educational attainment helps reap the benefits of transparency even more and, thus, catalyzes transparency to lower-state fragility more effectively.Research limitations/implicationsOur research shows that greater transparency leads to lower state fragility. Additionally, if the populace of the country has higher educational attainment, the benefits of transparency in reducing state fragility is enhanced. Although enhancing transparency amid high state fragility may be a challenging task, it can be achieved by providing the populace with better media access via internet and cell phones.Originality/valueThe authors use a relatively new database of transparency to show that transparency acts as an important determinant of state fragility. A state is deemed fragile when it falters in its ability to manage conflict and in its capacity to deliver basic functions and implement public policy. Given this definition, it is needless to say that what can affect state fragility and how can such fragility be lowered is an important research agenda. This paper aims to fill this gap. Additionally, it shows the importance of education while exploring such a relationship.

AbstractWe study the interactive association of press freedom, access to media and education with a nation's corruption levels. A free press generates unbiased information that greater access to the media helps propagate; and a greater degree of education, in the same context, helps individuals apply that information. This entire process generates a vigilant and corruption‐free economy. It is therefore important to consider these factors in conjunction.

Financial development is definitely a determinant of the extent of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow into an economy. Yet, the contribution of financial development (FD) can be dependent on the political situation of the recipient nation. Higher political stability aids financial institutions to reap the benefits of FDI efficiently. Our paper empirically investigates the role of political risk in the association of FDI and FD. Using a panel of 97 countries, we show the relationship to be strictly non-linear. The impact of FD on FDI becomes negative beyond a threshold level of FD. However, we do find political risk factors to be affecting the relationship by altering the threshold level of financial development.