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The Iran-Saudi Arabia conflict is an ongoing struggle for influence in the region that has created uncertainty, affected oil prices and regional economics. This paper uses wavelet analysis to examine the frequency and time-varying co-movement and casual nexus between petroleum prices (OP) and financial liquidness (MS) with and without geopolitical risk (GPR). The aim is to test the validity of the monetary equilibrium model from 1988 to 2019. The model is supported by the findings, as both short and medium-term association is found between OP and MS at high frequencies in the presence of GPR. We find a medium-term association between OP and MS in the absence of GPR. The paper's overall conclusion suggests that GPR affects OP and OP, in turn, impact MS. Diversifying economic activities to minimize oil dependency, which is sensitive to external shocks, is suggested as a mitigation solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The industrial development alongside inadequate planning in the energy sector put demand-side pressure on Pakistan's energy demand. Similarly, the excessive dependency on fossil fuels has an ecological footprint. Moreover, the abuse of energy tariff subsidies and deficits had a detrimental effect on department earnings, limiting the sector's emergence and intensifying its crisis. This research examines the electric demand and supply imbalance in the context of the China–Pakistan economic corridor investments using the system dynamics modeling approach, highlights the renewable resources, and discusses the hurdles in the way of green conversion. Moreover, the study forecasts the production capacity, electric demand, and supply up to 2040. The results show that China–Pakistan economic corridor investments will uplift the production capacity up to 12.9%, whereas the average production will reach 15.8%, variables that were 5% and 4.8% before China–Pakistan economic corridor. As a result, the energy sector will be able to meet the energy demand after 2021. However, the current investment in the renewable industry will not help in achieving policy targets. The study provides targeted implications to overcome potential barriers to the green path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Venezuela's oil-dependent economy is severely affected by geopolitical instability, causing hyperinflation and devaluation of the national currency. Therefore, this study intends to examine the nexus among geopolitics, exchange rate, and oil prices by employing the Wavelet analysis for a sample ranging from 2008 to 2019. The results reveal that oil prices and exchange rates have a bidirectional causal relation from 2017 to 2019. Similarly, geopolitics and oil prices cause each other from 2017 to 2019. A medium-run co-movement between geopolitical risk and exchange rates is observed from 2015 to 2019. We notice that oil prices and exchange rates exhibit a causal relation from 2008 to 2011 and from 2018 to 2019. The results support the theoretical model and are in line with the actual dynamics of the economy. Based on our results, we conjecture that Venezuela has to reduce its oil dependence since it is susceptible to geopolitical risk, avoid regional conflicts, and manage exchange rates to achieve sustainable growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Airborne and spaceborne hyperspectral imaging techniques are topics of great interest in the remote sensing field due to their ability to provide rich spatial and spectral information, which are paramount for a better characterization of the Earth's surface and atmosphere. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the current state-of-the-art in the applications of airborne and spaceborne hyperspectral imaging for atmospheric research. Main hyperspectral imaging systems, data analysis methods and their applications in some atmosphere research areas, including the estimation of aerosol and water vapor content for a deeper understanding of atmospheric phenomena, cloud characterization for better prediction of weather phenomena, and gas emissions detection for air quality control, were discussed. Many studies have shown very promising results, but as hyperspectral imaging is in a continuous dynamic, there are several challenges that need to be addressed in future studies so that it can become one of the most important tools for atmosphere research. The answer to some questions on this topic is provided and directions for future research are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of many new challenges for the EU economy, convergence continues to be one of the main goals in the long run. This paper provides empirical evidence in support of a significant trend of convergence for the EU28 countries after 2000. Investigating the drivers of this trend, we concurrently developed an analysis of convergence for each of the three EU conventional groups and we document rather different results, i.e. strong convergence for the group of former eastern communist countries (EU11E), slow convergence in the group of Southern countries (EU6S), and a trend of slow divergence for the group of North-Western countries (EU11NW). Moreover, taking into account the new Western Balkan candidate countries (EU6B, comprising Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia), we analysed the convergence among these four groups of countries in an extended EU, conventionally denoted as EU34. Our study suggests the existence of complex dynamics that feature the EU34 economic system of heterogeneous economies. When separating the region into two zones based on the average level of income per capita, we notice completely different behaviours: on the left side an accelerated convergence to the average level of the system prevails, while the right side features a general slow divergence interrupted by some periods of convergence; the distribution could be far from a normal distribution for which the behaviour is linear; around the average level the behaviour may change dramatically, uncovering an instability sub-zone, with higher stability only far from the average level on the right side. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accurate forecast of carbon dioxide emissions is critical for policy makers to take proper measures to establish a low carbon society. This paper discusses a hybrid of the mixed data sampling (MIDAS) regression model and BP (back propagation) neural network (MIDAS-BP model) to forecast carbon dioxide emissions. Such analysis uses mixed frequency data to study the effects of quarterly economic growth on annual carbon dioxide emissions. The forecasting ability of MIDAS-BP is remarkably better than MIDAS, ordinary least square (OLS), polynomial distributed lags (PDL), autoregressive distributed lags (ADL), and auto-regressive moving average (ARMA) models. The MIDAS-BP model is suitable for forecasting carbon dioxide emissions for both the short and longer term. This research is expected to influence the methodology for forecasting carbon dioxide emissions by improving the forecast accuracy. Empirical results show that economic growth has both negative and positive effects on carbon dioxide emissions that last 15 quarters. Carbon dioxide emissions are also affected by their own change within 3 years. Therefore, there is a need for policy makers to explore an alternative way to develop the economy, especially applying new energy policies to establish a low carbon society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of remittances on the exchange rate and exports in Pakistan, using the system GMM aproach on annual data series. We carry out a full sample Granger causality test along with the sub-sample rolling window approach using monthly data series to find the causal relationship between remittances (REM) and the exchange rate (EXR). The System GMM results reveal that remittances depreciate the exchange rate and have a positive influence on export competitiveness. In addition to this, the remittance inflow appreciates the exchange rate only if it is used for savings and negatively affects competitiveness if it is channeled towards consumption. The change in exchange rate regime from multiple to flexible depreciated the exchange rate while, the global financial crises uplifted the currency rate and negatively affect the exports. The results show the bidirectional causal relationship between remittances and the exchange rate. The outcomes further reveal that the parameters in the VAR model are unstable, which is a clear indication of the presence of structural changes. The rolling window estimation approach with time-varying characteristics finds bi-directional causality between REM and the EXR in the different sub-samples. The results of this study fall in line with the portfolio model proposed by Mussa (1984) which states that the flow of remittances causes appreciation. The sub-sample causality is related to significant economic events, which means the results are not a statistical artifact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests for the presence of fiscal convergence in 27 EU countries during 1995-2012. We use the methodology proposed for ft convergence in order to check for similarities and divergences between the old and the new EU member states as regards the convergence speed. We are also interested if the pace of convergence was maintained during the whole period or if there are differences between the years 1990s and 2000s. The panel data model is used in order to analyse the convergence on groups of countries and time periods. The results point to the existence of the fiscal convergence process in both the old and the new EU member states, but with major differences depending on the period analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The connections among the European stock market indices are considered as an important element in the study of the integration of these markets. Our paper suggests the analysis of these connections by means of analyzing the simultaneity of regime shifts in the dynamics of a set of Western and Eastern European equity market indices. We measure this simultaneity phenomenon and we present evidence in support for its future consideration as a step in the study of stock market integration in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the relationship between GDP and FDI in Romania and we also assess the importance of GDP level for further attracting FDI. Using an ARMA model, we find that FDI in Romania is not explained by the value in the previous period, but is due to the evolution of the errors in the previous period. In the range 1990-2013 we obtain a valid relationship between FDI and real GDP growth. According to the variance decomposition of FDI, we can conclude that 1.06% of the variation of FDI is explained by the changes in real GDP rate in the first period. Then, the influence of GDP rate decreases in time, the variance of FDI explained by GDP rate having a value close to zero in the 10th lag. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current post-crisis era, the events with the highest probability to move the financial markets are the announcements of financial authorities concerning the quantitative easing decisions. The objective of this paper is to build an analysis of the existence of connections among the GBP currency pairs in terms of regime switching that could be related to the moments when the Bank of England generated announcements about its monetary decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of connections between macroeconomic growth and financial markets is studied for a long time in the academic research. The special case of the developing countries, which is the case of the Central and Eastern European economies highlights this phenomenon even more, as many of them are still at the verge of reforming their economies. Our paper proposes the use of MIDAS regression in an analysis of the connections between macroeconomic growth and equity markets in this region in order to exhibit the importance of the latter for the reform strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the importance of FDI for the economic growth of both home and host countries, the aim of this paper is to assess the importance granted to location advantages during the development of FDI theory. We start with the earliest theoretical directions as regards FDI location issues and extend our study to describing less debated theories, but of a particular importance for this theme. In this way, we have the opportunity to emphasize the changes in FDI location determinants. We find that a direction of the FDI theories’ expansion is due to the incorporation of new variables on location, although the location advantages are barely mentioned in the first explanations regarding the international activity of the firms.

The paper builds on the burning issue of the attractiveness of the location for foreign direct investments (FDI), assuming its positive and substantial economic impact on the development of the host country. The location decision for FDI in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries is investigated based on the attractiveness framework designed by policy makers: infrastructure endowment, institutions’ quality, labour market conditions and level of taxation. The analysis assesses the FDI inflows in a country in three years: 2004, 2007 and 2010. Thus the FDI evolution relative to public policies attractiveness is seized starting with the European Union (EU) integration and after the crisis started. The paper follows the literature on the determinants of the FDI related to the L (location) factor described in the eclectic paradigm of Dunning (the OLI model), but focuses on the role of public policies in attracting FDI and captures two of the recent major turning points faced by the CEE countries, scarcely tackled in the literature: the EU integration and the recent economic crisis. We compute a public policy index, constructed as a composite measure, based on the four pillars mentioned above, in order to test the public policies attractiveness in the CEE countries. Moreover, we develop an attractiveness matrix starting from the public policy index, and we rank the most attractive countries for FDI in the three years. We analyze the matrix based on the FDI inflows per capita. We found a positive relation between the increase in the public policies attractiveness and the inward FDI. The increase of the FDI per capita since the EU accession year is, at least partially, due to the increasing attractiveness of the public policies. The crises worsened the CEE countries’ attractiveness. Still, the winners in the race for FDI remained those countries that improved the infrastructure, the institutions’ quality and the labor market conditions. Therefore, short and medium term policy directions can be emphasized. Infrastructure and institutions’ quality can be improved for further attracting FDI during rough budgetary constraints. The literature is enriched with the empirical analysis of the FDI determinants in the recent years. Our paper takes into account the major events faced by the CEE countries in the last years and checks for potential methods of attracting FDI even during difficult economic conditions.

This paper proposes a novel cooperative game network DEA model for evaluating marine circular economy (MCE) performance. The proposed model considers the bidirectional link between the economic production (EP) and environmental treatment (ET) subsystems within the MCE system. Then, the cooperative game strategy between subsystems is modeled by maximizing the factor inefficiency both of subsystems into the model's measurement from a centralized control perspective. The evaluation results of China's regional MCE performances over 2006–2015 show that while most coastal areas have a better efficiency score for the EP system, their performance of the ET system is worse and leads to poor MCE performances. In addition, converge analysis indicates that there exists β converge of efficiency difference across coastal regions in the long term. Furthermore, the efficiency decomposition reveals that many inefficient environmental treatment inputs contribute to the worse performance of the ET system. Based on the above findings, several specific policy implications for the existing problems are provided to promote China's MCE. • A novel two-stage game DEA is proposed for evaluating MCE performance. • Regional disparity and stage characteristic of MCE in China are explored. • Convergence analysis of efficiency change are provided. • Factor efficiency is given as the determinant of system performance. • Policy suggestions are proposed for promoting marine circular economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]