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This study explores the nexus among clean energy, economic growth, urbanization, trade openness, and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions nexus in an emerging economy, Sri Lanka. An autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) econometric technique and different diagnostic tests are used to investigate the linkages. The pairwise Graner causality approach is applied to investigate the causality direction. The estimated results have confirmed that clean energy and urbanization reduce carbon emissions, whereas trade openness induces carbon emissions in the long run in Sri Lanka. The findings revealed the non-existence of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in Sri Lanka. In contrast, the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH) exists between trade openness and carbon dioxide emissions in Sri Lanka. Regarding causal relationships, there is bi-directional causality between clean energy and urbanization. This study reports a unidirectional causality from clean energy to CO2 emissions, economic development to carbon emissions, urbanization and trade and CO2 emissions to urbanization and trade. Based on the above findings, this study recommends some policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using World Bank and IMF data over the period 1990–2018, this research explores the determinants of economic growth in Bangladesh with particular attention to environmental degradation and export concentration variables. An ARDL (Autoregressive Distributed Lag) bound testing approach is employed as an estimation strategy with FMOLS (Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares) and CCR (Canonical Cointegrating Regression) for cross-checking the results. The obtained results confirm that CO2 emissions, consumption expenditure, export concentration, remittances, and inflation are the main driving forces for the long-run economic growth in Bangladesh where the effects of the first two variables and the last three variables are positive and negative, respectively. The study also reveals the dynamic short-run relationships among the chosen variables. Environmental pollution and export concentration are found to be the barriers to economic growth; therefore, the country should take necessary steps to mitigate this problem for ensuring long-run sustainable economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all sectors of the tourism industry, particularly air transportation. However, air transport remains an important contributor to economic growth globally. Thus, this study examines whether air transport (a proxy for tourism) stimulates economic growth to validate the air-transportation-led growth hypothesis (ALGH) in the Australian context. To conduct the study, we analyse the asymmetric long-run and short-run impacts of the air passengers carried (a proxy for tourism) on the gross domestic product (GDP) in Australia. We use the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) modelling approach on data for Australia from 1971 to 2019. We also examined the effects of selected control variables (i.e., energy consumption, financial development, socialisation, and urbanisation) on economic growth. In both the short and long run, we observed statistically significant asymmetric impacts of air transport on economic growth. The positive shocks in air transport propel the long-term growth of Australia's economy. Additionally, according to the findings, negative shocks of air transport have a stronger detrimental impact on economic development than positive shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Workers' living standards have recently deteriorated in the service sector throughout the world, although a few decades ago, service was among the fastest growing sectors in industrialised nations. However, in recent years, in service sectors tourism especially has been drying up. This paper examines the symmetric and asymmetric effects of tourism, market capital, financial development, and trade on service sector employment in Australia from the period 1991–2019. The results of the cointegration tests, notably the ARDL and NARDL bound tests, reveal that the variables are related in the long run. The positive effect of tourist arrival on service sector employment in Australia is confirmed by long-run estimates from both ARDL and NARDL approaches. Similarly, both approaches also confirm the long-run positive relation of financial development. However, while ARDL shows long-run negative and positive associations of market capital and trade, respectively, the opposite is found in the case of the NARDL approach. As a result, policy proposals like planning and initiating tools for ensuring consistent international arrivals and easing of entry requirements have been recommended by this study to assist Australia in enhancing service sector employment, thus promoting economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managers need to better understand how information and communication technologies (ICTs) lead to informed decisions about the investment and advantages of such technologies. However, at best, the empirical evidence on the business value of technology is mixed in relation to small firms. A total of 43 firms satisfied the study's definition of start-ups. The final survey included 54 questions on access to and use of ICTs, innovation, firm characteristics, as well as the participants' demographics, of which 11 factors were analyzed as part of this study. We found compelling evidence to support the positive effects of ICTs on firm-level innovation and performance based on the primary survey data of 270 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) operating in an Australian regional area. Moreover, we found that ICT strategies and skills are important factors that drive innovation and the overall performance of SMEs. In addition, various conditions, such as an agile workplace culture and international trade, can help firms improve their performance. Young businesses, particularly start-ups with ICT skills, show an improved innovation capability. However, remoteness appears to influence innovation negatively for nascent firms. Thus, managers should focus on improving ICT skills, strategies, and networking that help facilitate tangible ICT investments to foster innovation and growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and shareholder wealth arising from announcement returns of security issuance from a frontier market. It also explores the role of business group affiliation (BGA) on this relationship. Design/methodology/approach: The study uses short-term scenarios to examine the link between CSR and shareholder wealth using the event study methodology which helps us mitigate the reverse causality problems related to studies of the relationship between CSR and firm value. Abnormal returns surrounding the security issue announcements were generated using the market model. Findings: This paper finds that security issuers with high CSR scores are associated with higher shareholder value. However, this paper finds that CSR activities of security issuers with BGA are value-destroying which is consistent with the agency perspective of CSR. Research limitations/implications: This study is limited to only one nascent market, namely the Colombo Stock Exchange. Originality/value: This study documents that CSR and BGA are important determinants, among others, of stock price reactions to security offerings in emerging markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Industrial pollution is considered to be a detrimental factor for human health. This study, therefore, explores the link between health status and industrial pollution for the top 20 industrialised countries of the world.Methods: Crude death rate is used to represent health status and CO2 emissions from manufacturing industries and construction, and nitrous oxide emissions are considered to be indicators of industrial pollution. Using annual data of 60 years (1960-2019), an unbalanced panel data estimation method is followed where (Driscoll, J. C. et al. Rev Econ Stat, 80, 549-560, 1998) standard error technique is employed to deal with heteroscedasticity, autocorrelation and cross-sectional dependence problems.Results: The research findings indicate that industrial pollution arising from both variables has a detrimental impact on human health and significantly increases the death rate, while an increase in economic growth, number of physicians, urbanisation, sanitation facilities and schooling decreases the death rate.Conclusions: Therefore, minimisation of industrial pollution should be the topmost policy agenda in these countries. All the findings are consistent theoretically, and have empirical implications as well. The policy implication of this study is that the mitigation of industrial pollution, considering other pertinent factors, should be addressed appropriately by enunciating effective policies to reduce the human death rate and improve health status in the studied panel countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since there is a general perception that the defence industry is more susceptible to corruption compared to other sectors, using a unique database provided by Transparency International (TI), we examine the role of firm level antecedents on firm level corruption risk in the defence industry. We find that larger firms have lower levels of firm level corruption risk. Managerial shareholding is associated with higher levels of corruption risk. Firms that voluntarily disclose more information regarding their corruption control systems tend to have lower levels of corruption risk. Finally, listed firms also have lower levels of firm level corruption risk. We find that the "listing effect" is stronger among firms in financially developed countries ostensibly due to the better scrutiny and monitoring by market participants. In our analysis, we control for country level variables such as a composite index of government effectiveness in controlling defence industry corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the issuance choice across rights issues of equity, unit offerings, and standalone warrants and investigate the market reactions to these issue types. We find that agency costs, growth opportunities, and current funding needs relative to assets in place are prime drivers of the type of equity issuance choice. Managers use quality signals such as underpricing, underwriting status, and the proportion of funds raised by exercising warrants in determining the features of the warrant issue. Furthermore, we document that the market reacts more favorably to standalone warrants issues than units and equity during the rights offering period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite the high rate of teenage pregnancy in Nigeria and host of negative medical, social and economic consequences that are associated with the problem, relatively few studies have examined socioeconomic inequality in teenage pregnancy. Understanding the key factors associated with socioeconomic inequality in teenage pregnancy is essential in designing effective policies for teenage pregnancy reduction. This study focuses on measuring inequality and identifying factors explaining socioeconomic inequality in teenage pregnancy in Nigeria.Methods: This is a cross sectional study using individual recode (data) file from the 2018 Nigeria Demographic Health Survey. The dataset comprises a representative sample of 8,423 women of reproductive age 15 - 19 years in Nigeria. The normalized Concentration index (Cn) was used to determine the magnitude of inequalities in teenage pregnancy. The Cn was decomposed to determine the contribution of explanatory factors to socioeconomic inequalities in teenage pregnancy in Nigeria.Results: The negative value of the Cn (-0.354; 95% confidence interval [CI] = -0.400 to -0.308) suggests that pregnancy is more concentrated among the poor teenagers. The decomposition analysis identified marital status, wealth index of households, exposure to information and communication technology, and religion as the most important predictors contributing to observed concentration of teenage pregnancy in Nigeria.Conclusion: There is a need for targeted intervention to reduce teenage pregnancy among low socioeconomic status women in Nigeria. The intervention should break the intergenerational cycle of low socioeconomic status that make teenagers' susceptible to unintended pregnancy. Economic empowerment is recommended, as empowered girls are better prepared to handle reproductive health issues. Moreover, religious bodies, parents and schools should provide counselling, and guidance that will promote positive reproductive and sexual health behaviours to teenagers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is an increasingly serious problem, resulting in significant environmental degradation, and various policies and regulations have been adopted to achieve zero-carbon with the goal of ameliorating this issue. To end this, along with economic growth, governments should consider human activities such as tourism and energy consumption, which are responsible for raising CO 2 emissions, a proxy for environmental degradation, in the atmosphere. Tourism may contribute to climate change through various adverse activities such as transportation and hotel stays. Thus, this study investigates the long-run cointegrating relationship between tourism and environmental degradation, focusing on some other specific factors. Using data from 1976 to 2019, the autoregressive distributed lag bounds test approach is applied to obtain both long-run and short-run coefficients. The estimated results indicate that tourism obstructs the achievement of zero-carbon in Australia. Along with tourist arrivals, energy consumption and gross domestic product are also significant contributors which have a positive and statistically significant long-run relationship with carbon emissions. This study provides policy implications for zero-carbon and sustainable tourism growth in Australia. • Climate change is an increasingly serious issue, resulting in environmental degradation. • Investigates the tourist arrivals and CO 2 emissions nexus. • Results show tourism has significant impact on the environment and is barrier to achieve zero-carbon. • Energy consumption and GDP are also significant contributor to the CO 2 emissions. • Policy considerations are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism contributes to the growth of an economy via earning foreign currencies and employment opportunities. However, tourism also contributes to greater energy consumption because of various tourist activities such as hotel accommodations and transportation. This study investigates the long-term cointegrating relationship between international tourist arrivals and primary energy consumption in Australia. In addition, the roles of gross domestic product, gross fixed capital formation, financial development, and total population on energy consumption are also examined. The study covered the last four decades (1976–2018) using data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, BP Statistical Review, and the World Development Indicators. Augmented Dickey-Fuller, Phillips-Perron, Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bound tests, Johansen and Juselius, Bayer-Hanck cointegration test, and several key diagnostic tests have been conducted to assess the relationship. The estimated results indicate that tourist arrivals, gross domestic product, and financial development have a significant long-run cointegrating relationship with energy consumption. Policy measures are suggested based on the findings of this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]