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ABSTRACTThis study explores the effect of structural change on the process of labour productivity convergence at different levels of data aggregations (regions, industries, countries), which is also known as hierarchical convergence analysis in the recent literature. Different forms of structural changes have occurred in the European Union, for instance, variations in the share of employment in different industries, variations in the demand pattern and variations in trade patterns and advancement in technology, which may have an influence on the nature of convergence. Earlier studies on convergence have neglected the effect of the structural change, which may have resulted in different conclusion about the convergence. Based on the results, the study found that the nature of convergence changes after considering the effect of the structural change.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the reasons behind low penetration of Islamic banking in Pakistan. Specifically, the study investigates the differentiation of Islamic banks (IBs) from conventional banks, the role of religion in choosing Islamic banking and the perception of IBs amongst the consumers. Design/methodology/approach: The study uses a mixed-method approach, qualitative research along with a survey of users of conventional and Islamic banking. Factor analysis identified underlying dimensions and cluster analysis ascertained the differences between users and non-users of Islamic banking. Inferential statistics were used to test purported hypotheses. Findings: The study finds that the users and non-users both perceive that Islamic banking is not completely interest-free. Furthermore, consumers presume that IBs are more of eyewash and are not truly practicing Islamic banking. Moreover, religion is not a major factor that attracts new users but there are also other important factors in marketing Islamic banking, such as service quality, convenience, branch network, etc. Originality/value: This is one of the sparse studies in the field of Islamic banking consumer behaviour, which uses focus groups of users and non-users, and in-depth interviews of experts, to identify the issues and factors considered relevant and important by the users rather than relying only on literature review. Furthermore, it also provides a profile of users versus non-users of Islamic banking which is very useful for segmentation and targeting of customers.

[1,2] are two highly cited studies on the relationship between energy and development. These are two seminal empirical papers touching upon the notions of causationand correlation, respectively, as far as energy economics is concerned. This study is a comprehensive note on these notions’ interconnectedness by revisiting both studies thoroughly and globally. None of these studies has ever been revisited at a global scale to the best of our knowledge. To this end, we first review deeper conceptual and philosophical concerns towards causationand correlationfor making a clear distinction between trueand spurious causation/correlation. We then develop a novel method to exclude spuriousmeasures from the true ones. We also statistically test several hypotheses regarding the relationship between energy use and wealth creation as captured by income groups. We could not confirm a definite consistency in pair-wise causationbetween energy and welfare variables at the country levels and across distinct estimation periods. Nor could we denote any strong correlationbetween energy variables and wealth creation. Causation results are not surprising as previous studies asserted similar remarks. However, this study firmly says that these are mainly due to the circularityand non-linearityof the inter-relationships between energy and welfare variables over time, as new institutions might influence development processes.

This study provide a bibliometric-based systematic literature review of academic research on the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). The main aim is to identify the leading sources of knowledge in terms of the most influential journals, articles, and authors. Furthermore, a thorough content analysis of the 100 most influential papers is provided for identifying the important research attributes, such as the characteristics of data, methodologies, and major findings. The study identifies 1654 articles on EKC from Scopus-Indexed journals. Ecological Economics is the leading journal based on total citations (15,452), h_index (59), and the g_index (94). The most cited article in terms of total citations belongs to Stern, D. I. entitled “The rise and fall of the EKC curve”, published in World Development in 2004. From the content analysis of 100 papers, we find that 66% used panel data. Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS) and Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) models are the most popular methodologies used in EKC studies so far. CO2 emission is a widely used variable to measure environmental degradation. The majority of the studies have confirmed inverted U-shaped EKC for both panel and time-series studies. The Granger causality results show that income Granger causes environmental degradation. For future direction, it would be interesting to investigate EKC hypotheses against a wider nature-economy nexus that could better explain the sources and causes of change in the type of such nexus. Additionally, adequate and appropriate exogenous variables that could explain external shocks into the nature-economy nexus.