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The purpose of this study is to examine the threshold effect of inflation on the foreign direct investment (FDI) – economic growth nexus in sub-Saharan Africa using panel samples of countries that have adopted an inflation-targeting regime. The study sourced data from the World Bank’s World Development Indicators over a period of 1982–2020 and adopted the fixedeffect panel threshold model approach for its analysis. The findings reveal two separate thresholds of inflation in the FDI – growth nexus. The growth-enhancing effect of FDI is largely realized when inflation is below the optimal threshold level of 7.26%. Beyond the second threshold level of 16.49%, the beneficial effect of FDI on growth is seen to diminish in terms of effectsize. This study provides new insights into the growth effect of FDI and the role of inflation levels in this nexus. The thresholds of inflation and the attendant size-effect of FDI on growth can be benchmarks for Africa and other developing and emerging economies in assessing their situations. As African monetary authorities choose which inflation targets to set for their monetary policies, the findings raise significant implications for them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the perspective of investment-driven to innovation-driven for high-quality development, this study discussed an influence mechanism of investment structure optimization on the industrial agglomeration degree and its growth path of balanced regional economics. We put forward assumptions about their relationship with a mediator of the regional innovation capability and a moderator of the market-oriented business environment to solve problems of the regional economic gap to accelerate the construction of a unified national market in China. We used the regional industrial data of 31 provinces in China from 2004 to 2017 to verify these hypotheses. Finally, we found that regional innovation capability completely moderates the relationship between investment structure optimization and industrial agglomeration degree, and the market-oriented business environment adequately moderates the relationship. This result shows that regional innovation capability and market-oriented business environment restrict industrial agglomeration degrees and accelerate the integration of diversified capital. So, improving the investment of human capital and R&D capital is the key to solving the regional economic gap. It has enriched the research of high-quality development and provided necessary enlightenment for the practical application of regional industrial economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored the causal association between Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure development, measured by an ICT index, and the economic growth of 42 African economies between 2000 and 2019. Whether ICT development has contributed to real per capita GDP growth or ICT infrastructure expansion has just been a consequence of growth in real per capita GDP has been overlooked in prior studies concerning Africa. The econometric techniques used to analyse the data included robust second-generation tools to investigate cross-sectional dependence, slope homogeneity, and panel causality. The findings detected significant independence between the variables across countries, the slope was heterogeneous, and there was a long-run association between all of the economies in the sample. Dumitrescu and Hurlin’s panel causality analysis indicated a unidirectional causal association between per capita income and the ICT index. The results also demonstrated that capital and employment were the leading causes of per capita GDP growth. The findings suggested that accelerating economic growth in developing economies was essential to promoting ICT investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the advice of institutionalist Wendell Gordon, the author aims to "tell it like it is" by reflecting on his own path to institutionalism, the economic contributions of post-Keynesian institutionalism, and some of the major issues that deserve institutionalists' further attention. Several heterodox economists are identified as influences contributing to the making of this economic maverick, but so too are Barbara Jordan and Michael Harrington. Then attention is given to the institutionally focused pre-analytic vision of post-Keynesian institutionalism, the inescapable reality of business cycles in market-oriented economies, and the institutionalized myopia of money-manager capitalism. Some key issues warranting our further attention include the expansion of economic insecurity, the threat of authoritarianism, and the climate crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines university-driven partnerships that promote entrepreneurship in underserved communities, drawing from the experiences of NCGrowth, an economic development center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. We address the following questions: Who are the central stakeholders? How do they interact? What do their challenges and experiences imply for policymaking and practice in nurturing entrepreneurship ecosystems in underserved communities? We employed social-network analyses of NCGrowth's projects spanning 2013–2019, supplemented by document analysis of archival data and in-depth interviews. The study uncovers highly asymmetric connections among stakeholders, with universities and government agencies emerging as dominant entities, leveraging universities' specialized knowledge and community relationships. Nevertheless, challenges surface due to overlapping roles as facilitators, the absence of consistent community carriers of development plans, and a dearth of financial institutions. Our findings advocate for an ecosystem-focused approach to economic development in underserved areas, emphasizing the involvement of additional anchor institutions such as hospitals, major corporations, and philanthropists. Furthermore, policies and practices should integrate the objectives of entrepreneurship, economic growth, and social equity to cultivate inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Services and economic growth are inseparably connected in developed economies. However, digitally enabled transactions continue to transform how services are conceptualized, produced, and delivered around the world. These changes blur the lines between goods and services by creating new combinations of products that call into question fundamental generalizations of the traditional services advertising paradigm. To redress this flaw and regenerate interest in an underexploited research domain, this article (1) introduces a literature-based generalized framework for services advertising and (2) provides a future research agenda for reengaging academicians and practitioners. Although the theoretical basis for services advertising received attention soon after the concept of services marketing was born, it peaked between 1996 and 2005, before waning over the past 15 years. The diminution of empirical attention to this important topic was due, in part, to an overreliance on the traditional goods/services distinction, the lack of an agreed-upon definition, and the theory–practice gap in service-based marketing. Resurrection of this critically needed research will allow new advertising strategies to be developed that will enhance both theory testing and practitioner needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relationships between CO2 emissions, GDP, renewable energy consumption, and trade openness across 37 OECD countries from 1995–2020. Using a Panel Vector Autoregressive (PVAR) model and Granger Causality tests, the research probes the causality among these factors. Key findings show a notable causality from GDP, renewable energy, and trade openness to CO2 emissions. Specifically, lags in renewable energy consumption and trade openness significantly decrease CO2 emissions. Surprisingly, GDP's influence on CO2 emissions is found to be negligible, challenging the typical belief linking economic growth to environmental degradation. These insights hold great value for policymakers in environmental governance and climate finance. The data underscores the importance of promoting renewable energy and trade openness for effective CO2 reduction. The study advocates a sustainable environmental governance model, emphasizing strong legal structures and clarity in execution. Since GDP doesn't significantly impact CO2 emissions, there's potential to pivot towards sustainable economic growth models. The research offers a foundational empirical groundwork, suggesting that expanding future studies to include diverse variables might yield a more comprehensive understanding of the relationships in question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic developments affect urban land-use changes. Using Lefebvre's production of (urban) space as a conceptual framework, this study investigated the industrialisation process and its urban spatial outcomes in three cities (Galan, Dukem, and Bishoftu) along the southern outlet of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital. Landsat images were used to quantify the changing patterns of the three cities from the period 2006 to 2021. Interviews with key informants and document analysis were used to supplement these findings. The analysis reveals that in Addis Ababa-Bishoftu economic growth corridor, the unruly urban land-use changes have become a serious issue, challenging the sustainable development of cities. The study confirms that the proximity to Addis Ababa has contributed to the urbanisation process and urban corridor formation through investment expansion. This calls for a high level of expertise as well as integrated regional development for sustainable urban and industrial development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies estimation of linear panel regression models with heterogeneous coefficients using a class of weighted least squares estimators, when both the regressors and the error possibly contain a common latent factor structure. Our theory is robust to the specification of such a factor structure because it does not require any information on the number of factors or estimation of the factor structure itself. Moreover, our theory is efficient, in certain circumstances, because it nests the GLS principle. We first show how our unfeasible weighted-estimator provides a bias-adjusted estimator with the conventional limiting distribution, for situations in which the OLS is affected by a first-order bias. The technical challenge resolved in the article consists of showing how these properties are preserved for the feasible weighted estimator in a double-asymptotics setting. Our theory is illustrated by extensive Monte Carlo experiments and an empirical application that investigates the link between capital accumulation and economic growth in an international setting. for this article are available online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study considers the economic importance of export activities, logistics performance and transportation services as key agents of sustainable development. Considering this aspect of economic development, this study investigates the mediating role of logistics performance in determining the effects of export and transportation on the economic growth of the panel data of 35 emerging upper-middle-income countries over the period 2008-2018. By employing the economic growth model and considering essential indicators, this investigation addresses key aspects of development in the examined economies. The empirical results show that logistics performance, exports, human capital, and population have a statistically significant impact on economic growth with respective elasticities of 0.28, 0.36, 1.25, and negative 0.05. Importantly, the study reveals that logistics performance moderates the effect of export and transportation on economic growth, thus aiding the sustainable development of upper-middle-income countries by increasing export-economic growth elasticity from 0.36 to 1.26. Although transportation services do not influence economic growth independently, its economic importance became significant with elasticity of 1.113 when logistics performance is improved. Therefore, policy makers in upper-middle-income countries should maintain strict macroeconomic policies that could effectively engineer the sustainable export of goods and services and ensure high-quality logistics performance even in the transport sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development goals (SDG) incorporate multiple dimensions to measure the progress made by nations in consolidating their economic and human development. Consequently, the main objective of this study is to explore the structures of variation and covariation between the SDGs indicators interpreting and describing their current status by countries and regions of the world. This study assessed 40 SDG indicators reported by 125 countries in the 2021 Sustainable Development Report, using the HJ-Biplot multivariate technique, through which it is possible to analyze the existing relationships between indicators and countries in a multidimensional way. The results indicate that the global North countries currently display solid sustainability characteristics that favor economic growth, though more work is required to protect the environment and promote responsible production and consumption. On the other hand, the countries of the global South with less purchasing power must still work on policies and strategies to promote the health and well-being of their populations, enable access to essential household services (water, sanitation, electricity, and internet, among others), and promote equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is hypothesized that a well-functioning financial market is necessary but not sufficient condition to achieve the expected economic growth. Therefore, policy instruments of government aimed at streamlining financial sector activity in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are imperative. As a result, this paper explores the effect of financial development on economic growth by allowing the link between the two far variables to be mediated by the quality of institutions for the period 2000–2019. Using Twenty-nine (29) countries and the System-Generalized Method of Moments (system-GMM) estimation method, it is found that financial development has a positive and significant effect on economic growth. In addition, it is found that, when rule of law, political stability, and regulatory quality are highly effective, the positive effect of financial development on economic growth is magnified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the recent years, the trend of environmental sustainability is rapidly increasing by adopting renewable energy resources. However, the main concern is that whether renewable energy consumption contributes to economic growth. To investigate the issue, this study analyzes renewable energy led economic growth hypothesis in the Next-11 economies over the period 1990–2020. Also, this study aims to examine the influence of industry value added, gross national expenditure, and trade openness on economic growth of these economies. Along with the second-generation panel unit root test, this study employed the non-parametric panel data approach, i.e., quantile method of moments regression. The estimated results reveal the slopes coefficients are heterogeneous and cross-sectional dependency is present in the panel. The non-parametric approach reveals that validity of renewable energy led growth hypothesis. Also, the industry value added, gross national expenditure, and trade openness are found positively affecting economic growth of these economies. The panel causality test gives indication of the two way causal association between the variables. Based on the obtained results, policy implications are also provided for governors and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the perspective of economic growth efficiency, this paper adopts the traditional DEA-Malmquist index method and the SBM-ML index method considering undesired output to measure the growth efficiency of China's real economy with or without environmental constraints. The results show that: (1) From 2005 to 2017, the total factor productivity of China's real economy increased by 2.7%, but under environmental constraints, the total factor productivity of China's real economy decreased by 0.6%, mainly due to the "drag" of the growth efficiency of the real economy by technological changes. Second, without considering the unintended output, 76.67% of the provinces and cities have improved the growth efficiency of the real economy, and 93.33% have made technological progress. Third, under environmental constraints, the total factor productivity and technological progress showed an upward trend only in the central region, while all other regions showed a downward trend to varying degrees. The descending range is east > northeast > west. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most alarming issues of the current times is the increasing level of carbon emissions and the depletion of Ozone layer, which is due to the increased fossil fuel usage. Scholars and governors are paying more attention towards identifying the factors and remedial measures of environmental degradation. The current study aims to analyse the influence of economic growth, research and development (R.D.D.), renewable electricity output (R.E.O.), and technological innovation (T.I.) on the carbon emissions in China throughout 1988–2021. This study uses the time series approach, that unveils the stationarity of variables, and the existence of cointegration between the variables. Due to the issue of data non-normality, this study uses the novel method of moment quantile regression (M.M.Q.R.). The estimated results asserted that economic growth and R.D.D. are the significant factors of increased carbon emission level in the country. On the other hand, renewable electricity is found adversely affecting the carbon emissions level. Also, the T.I. is found negative, but insignificantly affecting the carbon emission level of the country. These results are found robust by using the novel Bootstrap quantile regression (B.S.Q.R.). The empirical results suggest the constriction policies that could consider the increased investment in environmental-related R.D.D, T.I., and renewable energy sector to attain sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to identify the pattern of economic growth of China by identifying the factors that are contributing to sustainability and reducing inequality in the Chinese communities. The role of sustainable development goals has become critical for even the non- democratic country because inequality is also found in China which is rapidly increasing due to overpopulation and other factors. In this study, the questionnaire was developed on the Likert scale to collect the data from the economists to test the relationship between the hypotheses. The sample size for this study was 330 from the selected population of 800 people with a response rate of 45%. The study concludes that there is a critical role of sustainable development goals, sustainable economic policy, and labor productivity in the growth of China's economy. Further, this study also demonstrates that the Chinese government must focus on sustainability to reduce inequality in society. Significantly, this study provides a detailed insight into the relationship of factors that are contributing to China's economic growth that was not discussed earlier in the Chinese economic context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers and governments are debating whether to use renewable energy sources or fossil fuels. The impact of the final decision on developed and developing regions is either the same or different. To investigate the answers to these issues, the current study used panel data for the US economy from 1985 to 2020. Following preliminary diagnostic testing, the researchers discovered that the data is stationary at the level and has long-run cointegration. Furthermore, the influence of economic growth (GDP), nonrenewable energy (EU), and renewable energy consumption was investigated using the quantile regression approach (REC). The analysis discovered that the impact of GDP and the EU on carbon emissions is lowest in industrialized countries and highest in underdeveloped countries. However, the corrective influence of REC on carbon emissions is lowest in industrialized countries and highest in developing regions. Although the GDP and EU have less influence on carbon emissions, the corrective effect of REC is also the least; consequently, policymakers should encourage the aggregate production system to use more REC than the EU as a sustainable alternative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a fundamental driver of technological and economic growth. However, few studies have focused on the impact of AI industry agglomeration on economic complexity. This study uses a unique dataset of 2,503,795 AI enterprises in China collected through web crawlers to measure AI industrial agglomeration and examine the relationship between AI industry agglomeration and economic complexity in 194 Chinese cities based on Marshall industry agglomeration theory. The study's results show that AI industry clustering increases economic complexity. The mechanism analysis indicates that people and knowledge are the channels through which it boosts economic complexity. Unexpectedly, AI industry agglomeration does not improve the economic complexity index (ECI) through the goods path. This study proposes three possible explanations for this result. First, AI industrial clustering may lead to excessive rivalry in China's intermediate product market. Hence, sharing intermediate inputs has no increasing returns effect. Second, the city's high-end talent is not fairly distributed due to China's uneven development. Finally, policies drive the formation of China's AI industrial agglomeration, which does not develop naturally. Consequently, China should implement a talent- and knowledge-driven AI agglomeration. To avoid overcrowding, policies must match regional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development goal (SDG) achievement has gained increasing trend due to the current economic uncertainty that demands the attention of scholars, practitioners, and regulators. Hence, the study examines the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) responsibilities and economic development such as economic growth, net national income and FDI on the SDG achievements in BRICS countries. The secondary data is considered for the study which was collected from various resources like SDG reports published by the united nation and World Bank Indicators (WDI) from 1991 to 2020. The current research has checked them without structural breaks stationarity using Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test, Phillips–Perron (PP) test, and Kwiatkowski–Phillips–Schmidt–Shin (KPSS), while stationarity with structural breaks has been examined using the 'zivot-andrews' test. The study also employed the ARDL technique to verify the association among the constructs. The findings revealed that ESG responsibilities, economic growth, net national income, FDI, and inflation positively correlate with SDG achievements in BRICS countries. This article provides help to the regulators while making policies related the SDG achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the changes in carbon productivity and economic growth patterns in China. We calculated carbon productivity using panel data from BRICS and G7 countries between 2001 and 2019 and developed a methodology to estimate economic growth patterns by combining carbon productivity and economic growth. As the world's top carbon emitter, China can combat global climate change by increasing carbon productivity. We show that (i) China has a high growth rate of carbon productivity; however, the carbon productivity level only accounts for about 20% of developed countries. (ii) When determining economic growth patterns from a low-carbon perspective, China has transitioned from high-carbon type II to low-carbon type III. However, low-carbon economic growth is common in developed countries, and (iii) it can improve carbon productivity by reducing energy-averaged carbon emission factors. It assists the government in determining how to implement low-carbon economic development policies by examining economic growth from a low-carbon perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The former communist states experienced a period of turbulence in the transition to the market economy and then the accession to the EU, turbulences that also influenced the education sector. This article aims to analyze the impact of public spending on education on economic growth in 11 former communist Eastern European states, current EU members. The methodology used is ARDL with structural break. The results are consistent with those previously obtained The public education expenditure-economic growth relationship is mixed on long term; for five countries, there is no such thing; for six countries, there is one on a long term. On a short term, also, mixed results manifest for four countries are positive, and for two negative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To address the slowdown in growth from an inequality perspective, this study applies a comprehensive dataset with strong comparability and a dynamic panel threshold model to explore the effect of income inequality on economic growth, its channels of influence, and differences in channels due to country differences, considering income level differences and country differences. The study finds that whilst inequality impedes growth in the general growth framework, this impediment becomes insignificant when the fertility rate or country differences are controlled for. Second, the impeding effect of inequality on growth occurs at low-income levels rather than at high-income levels. Finally, in the low-income stage, inequality tends to impede growth through channels that reduce the level of human capital and political stability and increase fertility, rather than through channels that affect investment, and the channels vary slightly by the country's economic systems, religious beliefs, and saving habits. This study suggests that at the low-income stage, the government should appropriately increase the proportion of labour compensation, improve the redistribution system, encourage the development of charity, and establish a sound social donation system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coronavirus outbreak in 2020 shattered economies, public health and public well-being worldwide literally overnight. In response to the pandemic, most countries implemented a delicate balance of policy stringency and economic support to ensure public health, social security and a vibrant economy. With the pandemic slowly phasing out, our article explores the effectiveness of various governmental strategies for ensuring economic growth. The proposed econometric model is tested using panel quarterly data for 49 (37 OECD + 12 non-OECD) countries for all four quarters of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021. Our findings show that policy stringency and economic support are both negatively associated with economic growth. We also find that the stringency was largely responsive, oriented to preventing the collapse of health systems after infections had already become widespread, not towards saving human lives by preventing soaring levels of infection. While our findings appear to lend support for the view that a trade-off between human lives and the economy was inevitable, we also challenge this view by evidence that some countries were able to secure a double dividend of maintaining public health and a vibrant economy by a prudent far-sighted stringency policy of preventing the virus outbreak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, sustainable development goals (SDGs) have become an international requirement that needs to be achieved and requires the focus of recent literature and regulation authorities. Thus, the current article investigates the impact of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and economic growth on the SDG of ASEAN countries. The current study has extracted secondary data from secondary sources such as SDGs reports and world development indicators (WDI) from 1986 to 2020. The present study has used the Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) to test the linkage among the variables. The results highlighted that the environmental score, social score, governance score, and economic growth positively associated with the ASEAN countries' SDGs. The current article provides help to new researchers while conducting research on achieving SDGs and guides policymakers while establishing policies regarding achieving the SDGs through ESG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this article is to analyze the evolution of Brazilian regional economic inequalities in the long-run. The theoretical basis is the "spatially unbalanced growth," approach largely influenced by Albert Hirschman and Nicholas Kaldor's perspectives. I examine data from 1900 at the national level, analyzing GDP growth, investment rate, and manufacturing share. Using data on GDP at the subnational level (Brazilian regions and states), I calculated the Coefficients of Variation and Williamson from 1939 to 2010. Based on this movement, I propose an interpretation of the evolution of Brazilian regional economic inequalities that considers national economic dynamics, institutional and structural changes, as well as the role of regional policies. I concluded that the tendencies of increasing regional inequalities until 1970 and their subsequent decrease, as well as their recent propensity to stabilization, are related to a cumulative causation trajectory of these drivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study employs correlation analysis and a fixed effects model premised on indexes extracted through principal component analysis to assess the effects of entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviour, and entrepreneurial framework conditions (EFCs) on economic growth in BRICS economies. For purposes of effectiveness, a panel dataset for entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviour, and EFCs indicators is pooled from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor website, and one for gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, a proxy for economic growth, is sourced from the World Bank website over the period 2001-2021. The study reveals that there are statistically significant negative correlations between GDP per capita and 'entrepreneurial intentions rate', 'perceived capabilities rate', 'perceived opportunities rate', 'governmental support and policies', 'taxes and bureaucracy', 'governmental programmes', 'internal market openness', 'physical and services infrastructure' and 'cultural and social norms'. Furthermore, entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviour positively impact GDP per capita, whereas EFCs have no significant influence on GDP per capita in BRICS economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, carbon dioxide (CO2) emission is a significant element of environmental pollution because of corrupt economic activities that requires regulators' focus and researchers' emphasis. Hence, the current research evaluates economic growth on CO2 emissions in Chinese economy. The article has taken six factors of economic growth on board along with sustainable innovation to predict CO2 emissions. Secondary data, in this regard, has been used which has been borrowed from World Bank from 1986 to 2020. Augmented Dickey-Fuller test is employed to scrutnize unit root, while QARDL model has been run to identify the association between the constructs. Findings revealed that factors such as gross domestic product, national income, human capital, employment ratio, inflation and exports signifies CO2 emissions, hence are corrupt the environment. While sustainability oriented innovation reduces the emissions. This study monitors the policymakers while formulating regulators related to reducing the level of CO2 emission using economic growth factors and sustainability-oriented eco-innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The capital constraint and underinvestment faced by rural residents are the pivotal factors limiting economic growth. The rural capital outflow further magnifies the income gap between urban and rural residents, seriously undermining rural areas' capital accumulation and sustainable development. For this purpose, we perform a theoretical and empirical investigation of the impact of rural capital outflow on economic growth. The results reveal that rural capital outflow occupies investment opportunities for rural economic development that adversely affect economic growth. Secondly, rural economic growth has an inertial effect and generates path dependence on capital outflow. The calculation of rural capital outflow in northern Shaanxi, Guanzhong, and southern Shaanxi regions of China reveals that capital outflow in northern Shaanxi is insignificant and shows signs of capital return, while southern Shaanxi and Guanzhong emerge as key regions for capital outflow.Policymakers must adhere to long-term initiatives to reform and refine multi-level capital markets that support agricultural development in rural areas and build a sound rural financial market order for sustainable economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to assess the effectiveness of individual management systems in the analysed EU countries (Croatia, Poland, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Malta, Cyprus, Slovenia, Hungary), an econometric analysis of the interdependence between the quality of the institutional and regulatory framework and the absorption of EU funds and economic growth was conducted. Conceptually, the econometric analysis aims to identify two levels of interdependence between institutional and regulatory variables on the one hand and dependent variables on the other: (1) the effect of the quality of the institutional and regulatory environment on the absorption of EU funds; (2) the effect of the quality of the institutional and regulatory environment on economic growth. The results of the analysis confirm that EU funds have led to increased economic growth in EU countries which provides basis for economic convergence. However, the allocation of funds alone did not necessarily increase the quality of the institutional framework and competitiveness of the analysed countries. Thus, the paper confirms the importance of improvement of the institutional and regulatory framework of particular grant recipient country, as this not only increases the absorption of EU funds, but also improves the economic growth prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increased concern for green economic growth made many countries shift from simply pursuing economic growth to a green economic growth mode to protect resources and the environment. Against this background, we calculated China's green GDP and studied the impact of economic growth on environmental quality. For green economic growth, we employed income per capita, its square, information and communication technology, sports industry ecosystem efficiency, and human capital. We applied innovative econometric techniques such as cross-sectional dimensions (CSDs) tests, cross-sectional augmented Dickey-Fuller (CADF), cross-sectional augmented Pesaran and Shin (CIPS) tests, Westerlund co-integration test, generalised method of moments (GMM), and fully modified least squares (FMOLS) estimators. The obtained outcomes showed the inverted U-shaped EKC hypothesis, which validates the green economic growth theme. However, ICT was negatively associated with carbon emissions. Similarly, sports industry eco-system efficiency (SIE) showed an insignificant negative impact on the explained variable. Human capital was inversely associated with carbon emissions. In addition, the moderate role of the SIE significantly reduces carbon emissions. In addition, the D-H panel causality test results showed a significant causal association among the selected variables. Owing to the outcomes, we proposed imperative policy implications for the desired level of green economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development pursues equilibrium between the environment, economic growth, and quality of life. Currently, in many economies, environmental pollution has become a critical issue. The financial sector development has played a crucial role in developing every sector of the economy by providing necessary funds, and the environment sector is no exception. Therefore, we aim to investigate the impact of green finance and financial innovation on the environmental status in China from 1996 to 2020. To analyze the finance-environment nexus, we have employed the ARDL model. Findings of the ARDL model confirm that the long-run estimates attached to green finance are significantly negative in both the CO2 emissions and GHGs models. Similarly, the long-run estimates of financial innovation are negative and significant in the CO2 emissions and GHGs models. These results imply that an increase in green finance and financial innovation reduces China's CO2 emissions and GHGs emissions. Thus, environmental performance improves. In the short run, only the green finance impact is significant and negative on CO2 emissions and GHGs models. The results recommend some vital policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the impact of economic growth pressure on carbon emissions based on panel data from China's 277 cities. Moreover, the article analyzes the underlying influence mechanisms as well as regional heterogeneity. The results demonstrate that economic growth pressure significantly increases carbon emissions. Technological innovation and foreign trade constitute the channels through which economic growth pressure affects carbon emissions, but the mediating mechanism of industrial structure upgrading does not exist. Concretely, economic growth pressure increases carbon emissions by reducing technological innovation and foreign trade. In Western China, economic growth pressure has the highest impact on carbon emissions. In central and western China, economic growth pressure has a significant positive effect on carbon emissions. On the contrary, the effect of economic growth pressure on carbon emissions is significantly negative in Eastern China. In Northeast China, the positive effect of economic growth pressure on carbon emissions is statistically insignificant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Croatia, the social security system is based on generational solidarity, i.e. payment of contributions, which is known as pay as you go (PAYG), but the balance of its functioning is permanently and significantly disturbed by long-term unfavourable demographic processes. Projections show that the worrying demographic situation will deteriorate even further and that, with low birth and fertility rates and negative natural growth, negative net migration will contribute to further depopulation. In addition, contributions directly burden labour, i.e. they increase labour costs for employers and reduce their competitiveness in the marketplace, affecting economic growth. The paper reviews empirical research on the impact of different tax structures on economic growth, the sublimated conclusion of which is that direct taxes have a negative effect on growth, while indirect taxes are neutral. The Croatian tax system, with VAT as the main factor in the tax structure, is focused on taxing consumption, but is also characterized by a high level of levies. In this paper, the authors use the vector autoregression model to analyse the relationship between economic growth and the changed tax structure of the Republic of Croatia, in which the role of indirect taxes would be more emphasized. Data in model are consist of different types of taxes, GDPpc, population growth, gross fixed capital formation, unemployment rate and cover the time period from 2004 to 2019. The authors prove that the reduction of the tax burden through direct taxes has positive economic, demographic and fiscal effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current research investigates the role of green investment, information, and communication technology development growth in the Chinese economy's carbon emissions from 1985-2015. This study has applied the quantile autoregressive distributed lagged (QARDL) approach and the Granger-causality in the quantiles to examine the causal linkage between the variables of interest. The findings through QARDL estimation confirm that there is an existence of significant reversion to the long-run equilibrium association between the explanatory variables and CO2. More specifically, the outcomes under long-run estimation confirm that GIN and ICT development plays a significant role in combating the issues like higher CO2 in China. At the same time, more economic growth leads to the destruction of the natural environment with higher carbon emissions. However, the square of economic growth shows some fruitful results towards fighting environmental pollution but not in all the quantiles of the study. Besides, the Granger-causality outcomes confirm the presence of a bi-directional association between green investment, ICT development, economic growth, and its square value. Based on the study findings, some policy implications are also provided. Besides, various limitations are also linked with this study. Firstly, the current study only examines the trends in CO2 emission from the context of China, whereas other regional economies are entirely neglected. Secondly, the factors like governmental influence in controlling carbon emission, environmental regulations, and governance mechanisms are entirely neglected in this research. Thirdly, the robust checking of the empirical findings is also missing in this study. Fourthly, economic uncertainty would also contribute to environmental pollution like CO2. Therefore, it is suggested that future studies should focus on these limitations to provide some meaningful suggestions and literature contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continuous growth of the transport sector and the increase in transportation carbon emissions attract policymakers' attention. It is of great importance to understand the determinants of pollution from transportation. This study explores the dynamic nexus between transportation, growth, and environmental degradation in China. The QARDL approach is used for the empirical investigation of data series from 1995 to 2018. The findings exposed mixed results in both the long and short run. The result for freight transportation only improves the environment at upper extreme quantiles, while the results are insignificant in the short run. The results show that passenger transportation reduces CO2 emissions at the lower bottom quantiles in the long run, while the results are significant at upper extreme quantiles in the short run. In the case of GDP, the results endorsed the EKC hypothesis in the long run, while in short-run dynamics, the results for GDP2 are found insignificant, which elaborates that China's economic growth enhances the CO2 emissions. Besides, the quantile causality test showed a bi-directional causality between all variables. The findings of this study provide concrete evidence to the policymakers of China to strengthen the sustainable transportation system by promoting eco-friendly and energy-efficient modes of transportation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the happiness survey data, a robust body of literature has supported that people's subjective well-being is related to economic growth, employment, and inflation. Motivated by "Happiness Economics," this paper focuses on financial satisfaction, a proxy of subjective well-being. It examines the relationship between people's financial satisfaction and nations' macroeconomic performances. We use the World Values Survey and inflation, unemployment, and economic growth data collected from 2010–2014 to 2017–2022. We use the ordered probit and ordinary least squares regressions for the analysis. The findings show that financial satisfaction has a negative relationship with inflation and unemployment and a positive relationship with economic growth. Heterogeneity checks indicate that the association's strength and statistical significance vary by gender, age, household income, marital status, educational attainment level, and employment status. The overall results suggest policymakers should strive to mitigate the economic vulnerability of women, older adults, low-income earners, low-educated, those who are not married but live together, and those who are not in the labor force to maximize the financial satisfaction of individuals and thus promote subjective well-being of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent twin crises of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war have caused global economic effects, with gross variation, across countries. Evidently, higher self-sufficient economies with more effective economic performances faired relatively better with these shocks. This calls for policymakers to revisit the drivers of growth with a specific interest in sectors or tools wherein they seem to have a comparative advantage. Industrialization becomes imperative for Lesotho and inspires this study's interest in analyzing its relationship with economic growth. Surprisingly, existing empirical literature shows heterogonous outcomes on the relationship between Industrialization and economic growth and sometimes contradicts the expected positive relationship in theories. This study employs the Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model, to test the dynamic effect of Industrialization on economic growth for a unique case study—Lesotho. Additionally, this study employs the nonlinear ARDL to investigate the existence of asymmetry in the model. The time span from 1981 to 2020. The findings show that industrial development has significantly impacted the economic growth of Lesotho in the short and long run. And there exists no significant asymmetry in the short and long run. This provides empirical evidence for policymakers to intensify efforts in promoting Industrialization in Lesotho. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa's pursuit of inclusive and sustainable economic growth is impeded by many challenges, including climate change, whose effect is most apparent in the continent's tropical regions. To this end, this study investigates the impact of climate change on achieving pro-poor economic growth in Africa. Predicated on poverty-inequality-climate analysis, the Augmented Mean Group (AMG) estimator is used to analyse data from 1996 to 2020 covering 51 African countries. The results reveal that climate change significantly impedes inclusive growth. Furthermore, evidence of a long-lasting negative effect of climate change on inclusive growth, which could be attributed to a lack of coping mechanisms among the poor and vulnerable groups, is found. Finally, the findings show a marginal impact of institutional quality and government spending on inclusive growth in the face of climate change. The study recommends more climate mitigation efforts and enhanced adaptation mechanisms, especially for the poor, as they are most vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this study is to empirically investigate the impact of foreign direct investment on economic growth of Ethiopia by using a time series data for the period 1992–2019. Other explanatory variables like trade openness, human capital, national saving and gross capital formation were incorporated in the model. For the purpose of undertaking the study, Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) econometric model was employed. Moreover, a Toda-Yamamoto Causality test was performed to identify the direction of the causality between economic growth and foreign direct investment. Findings from the study show that, both in the short run and long run, foreign direct investment has a positive and significant impact on economic growth. As an outcome of Toda-Yamamoto Causality test shows, there is a unidirectional causality running from economic growth to foreign direct investment. On the basis of the findings, recommendations are made for the government authorities to expand infrastructural facilities for enabling a free movement of the investors to the remote and marginalized areas to further expand investment activities that result in higher economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to identify the impact of agriculture, forest and fishing value-added on international business, capital flow, and economic growth for India from 2000 to 2022, by examining short-term and long-term equilibrium using the Auto Regressive Distributive lag (ARDL) approach. Agriculture value added is taken as a dependent variable, and inward Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), stock of net FDI, economic growth and trade openness are taken as independent variables. Results indicate that there exists a long-term and short-term relationship between agriculture value added, economic growth and trade openness. Economic growth and trade openness have a statistically significant relationship with agricultural value added in the short and long run. Inward FDI and stock of FDI are not significant to agriculture value added. ARDL Bound test results indicate that there is a long-term cointegrating relation among the variables. The error correction term is also strong and significant (−13.96), suggesting resistance to shocks. Existing literatures coverage on agriculture and international business is scarce in the Indian context, and this research will be significant in that line. The results of this study resonate with the findings of a few studies conducted in other geographical areas, indicating the fact that the receptivity and absorptive capacity prevailing in an economy play a dominant role in receiving maximum benefits from inward capital flow leading to economic growth. This research reinstates that agriculture still influences economic growth in India. Openness is essential for creating a conducive atmosphere for economic development. The study also indicates the direction for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper investigates interactions of human capital, capital goods import and economic growth with a panel of 13 West African countries comprises of 7 low income and 6 low-middle income countries over the period of 1980–2018. The study adopts the Panel Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) cointegration techniques to establish a short and long-run relationship existing among the variables. Panel ARDL (Fixed effect) result revealed that the returns to equipment investment are moderately high on the average. Findings do not support the hypothesis that human capital makes production inputs more effective and helps countries gain from equipment investment and other imported investment for all the countries. This is due to inadequate knowhow and skill arising from the low levels of human capital in these countries. Determining the threshold of human capital development at which countries benefit from equipment investment, findings indicates that countries of the low-middle Income that exhibit a comparatively higher human capital (1.45 on the average) benefited more from imported capital stock and other importations than countries of the low income with very low human capital (1.27 on the average). Thus, we conclude that investment in human capital, innovation, and knowledge are significant contributors to economic growth and should be the priority of developing economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to address the relatively limited attention given to the examination of exchange rate misalignment uncertainty in the specific context of South Africa. By specifically focusing on exchange rate misalignment uncertainty, this study fills a crucial gap in the literature and gains a deeper understanding of the factors influencing economic growth in South Africa. While previous literature has provided valuable insights into the relationship between exchange rate uncertainty and economic growth, there is a dearth of studies focusing on the particular issue of exchange rate misalignment uncertainty in South Africa. Therefore, the objective of this research is to investigate the effects of exchange rate misalignment uncertainty on short-term and long-term economic growth in South Africa. To achieve this objective, we employ the generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) and vector error correction (VEC) models. The analysis utilizes quarterly data spanning from the first quarter of 1960 to the third quarter of 2022. The findings of this study reveal a negative association between exchange rate uncertainty and short-term economic growth, while the long-term effects yield mixed results. Moreover, we observe that higher exchange rate misalignment is linked to positive implications for economic growth. These findings emphasize the significance of managing exchange rate volatility and reducing uncertainty to ensure economic stability and foster long-term growth. Considering these findings, policymakers should prioritize implementing strategies that promote a stable exchange rate and cultivate a favorable business environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the threshold impact of government debt on economic growth in the presence of fiscal consolidation in South Africa from 1979 to 2022. The autoregressive threshold regime (TAR) model and two-stage least squares (2SLS) are used. The contribution of the paper is on the estimation of the threshold of government debt using the first difference, dummy variables, and the TAR in the presence of fiscal consolidation in South Africa. The TAR provides evidence with the consideration of fiscal consolidation, there is evidence of the U-shape impact of domestic government debt on gross domestic product per person. At a high threshold, there is evidence of an S-shape impact on gross domestic product per person when there is a range threshold. Overall high domestic government debt harms gross product per person and results in fiscal consolidation not being able to stimulate gross domestic product per person. It is recommended for fiscal authorities to not use fiscal consolidation when the domestic government debt is above 60% in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial structure upgrading (ISU) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has been improving in recent years, making it essential to examine how such upgrading influences pollution emissions in SSA. However, studies concerning the environment in SSA have overlooked this important role. Consequently, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals becomes futile if such critical issues are not given due attention in policy discourse. In light of this, this study examined the effect of ISU on pollution emissions in 28 SSA countries using data from 1980 to 2020 and employed two key measures of ISU as contributions to the literature. Regarding the analysis, the fixed effects, random effects, and feasible generalized least squares estimators and the Dumitrescu and Hurlin (D-H) causality test were employed. The results show that ISU improves the sustainable environment by reducing pollution emissions in SSA by 0.03–0.04%. Furthermore, economic growth (EG) increases pollution emissions by 0.63–0.72%, but after reaching a threshold level of 0.10%, EG reduces pollution emissions by 0.03–0.04%. This confirms the EKC hypothesis in the selected SSAs. The D-H causality analysis also reveals a bidirectional relationship between ISU and pollution emissions. Based on these results, we conclude that upgrading the industrial structure in SSA is crucial for a clean and sustainable environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the upsurge of external debt in SSA countries, the effect of external debt on economic growth has captured the attention of empirical studies during the last two decades of the twenty-first century. This study investigated the short- and long-run effect of external debt on the economic growth of 39 SSA countries during the last decade for the periods of 2011–2021. The annual balanced dynamic panel data for the study were sourced from a recognized trustworthy data source, the world development indicator. The result of the study divulged that external debt has a significant negative impact in both the short and long run. Unequivocally, other things remaining constant, a percentage change in total external debt is associated with a 0.034 percent decline in the real GDP of SSA in the short run, while it leads to 0.65 percent shrinkage in the real GDP of SSA in the long run. The study concludes that the negative impact of the long run is greater than that of the short run. The policy implication is that SSA countries should allocate the external debt on the projects that bring other investment opportunities to amortize external debt. Further, the strategies that improve domestic revenue mobilization sources that compliment external debt such as improving informal sectors to broaden tax bases and minimizing domestic revenue leakages need to be established in SSA countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most studies on the effects of debt on growth, particularly following the global financial crisis, have focused mainly on the advanced and emerging countries. Our focus on sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) derives from the recent experience of slow growth at a time of rising debt in the sub-region. This approach allows us the opportunity to fit a model that accounts for some region-specific characteristics, such as the quality of institutions and policies, conflict, and adverse terms of trade shocks. Our dataset comprises 24 SSA countries spanning 39 years from 1980 to 2018. We employ a variety of panel estimation techniques suitable for addressing the problems of endogeneity and cross-section dependence. The fixed effects instrumental variable technique is used as the baseline technique, while the bias corrected least-squares dummy variable and the limited information maximum likelihood are used for robustness. In agreement with recent literature, we find compelling evidence in support of a nonlinear relationship between debt and growth, which suggests that public debt may become harmful to growth if it rises beyond a certain level. Further to that, the evidence presents a threshold estimate of 78–85% in most cases. Some variations in threshold estimates based on differences in empirical estimation techniques were observed, which point to the need to localize debt–growth studies to country-specific cases for more applicable results. Policy implications based on these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to estimate the relationship and influence between regional inequality variables, human capital, the open unemployment rate, and economic growth in Indonesia using panel data. The panel data consists of a combination of time series data from the 2010–2020 period, based on information from 32 provinces in Indonesia. The estimation model employed in this study is a panel regression model utilizing three methods: the common effect model (CEM), fixed effect model (FEM), and random effect model (REM). The findings of the study reveal a positive and significant effect of the ETI factor on the LOG (GRDP) factor. Additionally, the HDI variable exhibits a positive and significant impact on the LOG (GRDP) variable, while the UNR variable also shows a positive and significant effect on the LOG (GRDP) variable. Furthermore, the ETI variable is found to have a positive and significant influence on the UNR variable, while the HDI variable has a negative and significant impact on the UNR variable. Finally, the LOG (GRDP) variable demonstrates a positive and significant effect on the UNR variable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of mining foreign direct investment on economic growth in Ghana using quarterly time series data from 1996–2015. The study employs the Autoregressive Distributed Lag bounds testing approach to cointegration and the error correction model to investigate the existence of a long-run and short-run equilibrium relationship between foreign direct investment into the mining sector and economic growth. The study established that foreign direct investment into the mining sector hurts economic growth in Ghana in the long run but a positive in the short run. The study also finds that private sector credit, capital stock, government spending, and labour participation rate have a statistically significant positive relationship with economic growth in the long run. Trade openness exhibited a statistically significant negative long-run relationship with economic growth, while inflation had a positive but insignificant impact on economic growth for the study period. The study recommends that government should encourage research and development in the mining sector and align mining and other environmental policies to ensure sustainable growth. It is further recommended that government tactfully provide investment incentives to ensure the development of other sectors to avoid the Dutch disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examined the effects of agricultural trade openness on economic growth in the EAC. We empirically analyzed the issue in five countries from 2000 to 2021. Panel data estimation methods were used in the study. The variables were found to be integrated of order one and zero. There was presence of cointegration, cross-sectional heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence. The CS-ARDL results revealed that agricultural trade openness and economic growth enjoyed a long-run relationship. The empirical results indicated that the effect of agricultural trade openness on economic growth was positive and significant in the long run. Bootstrap panel granger causality analysis was applied in testing the nature and direction of causal relationships between variables. The results indicated that a unidirectional causal relationship existed between agricultural trade openness and economic growth. This implies that an increase in trade openness promotes economic growth. Based on the findings of the study, we recommend that strategies aimed at promoting trade openness should be complemented with strong policies to enable EAC countries to reap more growth benefits associated with open trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International remittances remained one major source of international financial resources in the world. Yet very limited empirical studies exist on the impact of these remittances on economic growth, more especially in Ghana. To bridge this void in literature, the study analyzes the impact of remittances on GDP growth in Ghana from 1990 to 2020. The ARDL estimation technique was used to test the long-run association between the selected variables. The results showed that GDP growth rate has a long-run relationship with remittance inflows, foreign direct investment, unemployment rate, inflation, trade, population growth rate and official development assistance. Lastly, the mediating effect of unemployment on remittance inflows negatively affects GDP growth rate in both runs. It is therefore recommended that to ensure sustained GDP growth rate in Ghana, government should consider tapping into the contribution of remittances by ensuring reliable transfer means and cutting down the cost of transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]