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Objective: Today, the issue of protecting the environment and preventing its destruction is considered as one of the most important issues of global society. In neoclassical economics, capital and labor were considered as the engine of economic growth, but in recent decades, energy has become one of the main elements of economic growth. In a way, the economic growth of any country depends on the growth of its energy input (Zheng and Walsh, 2019). Along with energy use, greenhouse gas emission is also a term that is often used and the two are interconnected (Achampeng, 2018; Bacon et al., 2019; Gross and Aydin, 2019 and Reza et al., 2019). According to a report from the International Energy Agency, about 67% of the total carbon dioxide emissions are caused by the energy sector, and it shows that reducing air pollution can be achieved by controlling energy consumption. In an effort to respond to the dangers of climate change, studies suggest ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including; a) use of renewable energies; and b) the efficiency of using energy resources (Chang et al., 2018). Studies such as Alvarez-Hranz et al. (2017); Yuan et al. (2018); Lin and Zhou (2019) and Chen et al. (2019) proposed the use of renewable energy technology to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from energy consumption. However, the best and most cost-effective way to reduce air pollution and climate change caused by energy consumption is the optimal use of energy (Lopez-Pena et al., 2012). Triani et al. (2016) claim that strengthening energy efficiency in the industrial sector is the best tool in terms of cost efficiency to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from energy sources. Therefore, energy efficiency is considered as one of the main strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Considering the importance of environmental quality and the role of energy efficiency in its realization, in this article we try to examine the impact of good governance indicators on energy efficiency and its spatial effects. Therefore, in the field of energy efficiency, one of the goals of this research is to empirically examine the issue of whether the institutional arrangements of neighboring countries affect the institutional quality of the country itself and, as a result, whether energy efficiency is affected in this way. Therefore, we seek to answer these questions, is there a spatial spillover effect of institutional quality? If such spatial spillover exists, how much can it explain a country's level of energy efficiency? Also, the lack of agreement between the experimental studies in the obtained results and the reporting of different results in them is another factor of investigating the issue in the present research. Method: Spatial studies use spatial econometrics instead of common econometrics. Researchers in business, commercial and demographic studies that deal with spatial data and observations and can replace common econometrics with spatial econometrics. The most important differences between spatial econometrics and conventional econometrics are issues such as spatial autocorrelation and spatial heterogeneity, while the aforementioned issues are not discussed in conventional econometrics and it is ignored that not considering this issue causes a violation of the Gauss-Markov assumptions in this research with a random border approach and patterns Spatial econometrics examines the spatial impact of institutional quality on energy efficiency for a country group consisting of 89 countries and for the period 2002-2020. Findings: First, in order to avoid false regression, unit root tests are performed and their results are reported accordingly. The reported results indicate that the variables of logarithm of energy efficiency, logarithm of gross domestic product, logarithm of added value of industry sector, logarithm of added value of service sector, logarithm of urbanization population and logarithm of governance quality index are all at the same level. To estimate and analyze the model, the population spatial weight matrix and the gravity model were used, which were standardized using the row standardization method of the elements of this matrix. The considered model in relation (9) was estimated by SAR, SEM, SAC and SDM methods, and the best estimation method is decided by using the relevant tests. Conclusion: Studies have been conducted on the effect of institutional quality and governance on energy efficiency; But the understanding of the relationship and influence of government institutions on energy efficiency is still limited due to few studies, especially in the era of globalization, where countries interact more with each other and their policies and executive actions are affected by each other. Therefore, in this study, with the aim of investigating and analyzing the effects of institutional quality and governance and their spillover effects on energy efficiency, data from 89 countries were used in the period of 2002-2018. In this study, energy efficiency is estimated using the stochastic frontier analysis model and the spillover effects of institutional quality and governance are investigated with spatial panel patterns. In general, the experimental results show that energy efficiency has spatial correlation in the studied countries, and more importantly, the experimental results support the existence of spillover effects of governance quality on energy efficiency. In the current study, the direct effect of governance quality on energy efficiency was positive, although this effect was not statistically significant, but the spillover effects of this variable on energy efficiency had a positive and significant effect. Therefore, the level of energy efficiency of a country can not only be affected by the economic structure of each country, but in addition to the quality of institutions and executive policies of the country itself, it can also depend on the quality of institutions and governance of neighboring countries. This result shows that the country being surrounded by countries with good governance and institutional framework can affect the performance of efficiency and quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the potential of government fiscal support in mitigating the consequences of shocks, particularly in relation to the infection rate of contagious diseases. The focus is on the emergence of Covid-19 and the various interventions implemented by governments to combat it. The study utilizes a cross-country analysis, using a dataset that includes government fiscal measures, infection rates, and selected institutional and economic metrics from different countries. To isolate the effects of vaccinations, the analysis is specifically focused on the year 2020. The findings indicate that a one percentage point increase in the ratio of direct government spending to GDP corresponds to an approximate 0.08 percentage point reduction in the confirmed infection rate. Given the average infection rate of 1.6 percent in 2020, this translates to a significant 5 percent decrease in infection rates. Additionally, the study reveals that the effectiveness of fiscal support measures is influenced by the institutional quality of the countries. Higher institutional quality is associated with greater effectiveness of fiscal support measures in reducing the infection rate. Furthermore, the study highlights that the impact of government spending on reducing the infection rate is enhanced when accompanied by the implementation of governmental rules.1.IntroductionWith the outbreak of the COVID–19 pandemic, countries faced with a widespread shock that precipitated health–economic crises. In an effort to curb the spread of the disease, governments implemented quarantine measures while concurrently endeavoring to aid vulnerable households and businesses, aligning citizens with restrictive policies. It is essential to note that government responses extended beyond financial support; a comprehensive set of policies was enacted to address the outbreak and its ramifications. In this respect, the present research aimed to study the impact of fiscal measures on the prevalence of COVID–19.The study investigated the hypothesis that government financial support may contribute to diminishing the prevalence of COVID–19. Should this hypothesis prove valid by drawing from the lessons learned during the COVID–19-induced shock, we can advocate for a more widespread application of fiscal policy tools in similar circumstances. This recommendation may extend beyond the conventional goal of stabilizing the macroeconomy, encompassing a proactive approach towards reducing infection rates. Yet a significant portion of the existing literature refers to the limited role of fiscal policies in stabilizing economy.The significance of this study lies in its quantitative assessment of the impact of monetary and fiscal policies, along with the identification of institutional factors that influence the scale and composition of supportive policies. This information can help policymakers to make necessary institutional changes, enabling a more adept response to potential future shocks.In line with the hypothesis testing, the research also investigated the impact of certain fiscal support measures adopted by governments on reducing the infection rate of COVID–19.2.Materials and MethodsDue to the absence of the necessary database for testing the research hypothesis, the researchers constructed a suitable database by amalgamating and refining data sourced from various databases, including research centers specializing in infectious diseases, the World Bank, and other international statistical institutions. The study used a cross-country panel analysis to measure the impact of fiscal policies while controlling for influential variables.3.Results and DiscussionThe study showed that the overall direct government expenditures aimed at combating the outbreak of COVID–19 had a significantly negative relationship with the confirmed infection rate. This finding demonstrates a satisfactory level of stability in relation to changes in the control variables.Furthermore, the study employed the rule of law index to measure the impact of institutional quality on the effectiveness of expenditures. The index did not show a direct correlation with the infection rate. However, the significance of the coefficient associated with the product of the rule of law and government direct expenditures suggests that enhancing institutional quality can increase the effectiveness of expenditures in reducing the infection rate.The analysis of the expenditures indirectly linked to health revealed that a one-percentage-point increase in the ratio of such expenditures to GDP led to a 0.13 percentage-point decrease in the confirmed infection rate. Given the average 1.6% infection rate in 2020, this translates to a 5% decrease in the infection rate.The research results indicate that support provided through grants to small businesses, aids to tenants, income support for households, and expenditures resulting from reductions in various tax bases or similar measures proved successful in aligning businesses and households with quarantine policies. Moreover, these measures demonstrated a relatively acceptable ability to reduce the infection rate. Considering the average ratio of 3.4% of these expenditures to GDP of countries, it can be asserted that with an approximately 30% increase in support (equivalent to a one-percentage-point increase in this ratio), the average infection rate has decreased by 5%, hence a decrease in the mortality rate.4.ConclusionThe research results indicate that fiscal policies, beyond their role in stabilizing the macroeconomy, remain a potent tool in the hands of policymakers. Appropriately employed, these policies have the potential to mitigate the adverse effects of severe shocks, such as the outbreak of a disease. Specifically, the research highlights the effectiveness of fiscal support policies adopted during the COVID–19 outbreak in aligning households and businesses with imposed restrictions. There was evident reduction in the infection rate, even when controlling for other influential variables. Furthermore, the study underscored the impact of institutional quality, measured by the rule of law index, on the effectiveness of government fiscal support. It suggests that fiscal support measures carried out within a robust institutional framework demonstrate greater effectiveness. Conversely, in contexts characterized by weak institutions, the effectiveness of fiscal support is diminished.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of economic indicators, institutional quality and energy efficiency on the ecological footprint (as an indicator to evaluate the degree of environmental degradation). For this purpose, the annual data of 15 MENA countries (Middle East and North Africa) for the period from 1990 to 2021 have been used with the quantile panel approach. The quantile panel model provides the possibility of investigating the effect of research variables on the ecological footprint during different quantiles. The findings indicate the effect of the coefficients of the variables on the ecological footprint in accordance with the expected theoretical foundations; In such a way that the gross domestic product per capita, the ratio of foreign direct investment, and the degree of urbanization and political instability have a positive and significant effect on the ecological footprint, while the index of trade openness, corruption control, the index of democracy, and energy efficiency have a negative and significant effect on the ecological footprint. This effect has not been constant in different quantiles; In such a way that the effect of the variables of GDP per capita, energy efficiency, foreign direct investment ratio, degree of urbanization, and political instability in the high quantiles is far more than the low quantiles, and the effect of the variables of trade openness index, control Corruption and democracy index in low quantiles are more than in high quantiles.

The present study attempts to investigate the institutional factors affecting bilateral or multilateral investment treaties with regard to foreign direct investment. This is an applied research based on descriptive and correlational approach. In order to test the postulated hypotheses, given the availability of data, 42 countries were considered for the period 2006-2021, and the PPML technique was applied using Eviews 13 within the framework of the gravity model. The results showed that investment treaties have a positive and significant effect on foreign direct investment, although this effect will be greater in the case of developing countries. Factors such as common language, market capacity, and distance also have a significant impact, whereas population and geographic proximity are not significant determinants for the flow of foreign direct investment except for the paired developing countries. In general, the empirical investigation demonstrated that a bilateral investment treaty acts as a signaling device, indicating that the host country is serious about protecting the investment.

In the present study, the role of recession, boom and the quality of institutions in the impact of natural resource rents on Iran's financial development index in 1984-2018 has been investigated. For this purpose, first, the principal component analysis model has been used to extract the indicators of institutional quality and financial development. Then to study the effect of natural resource rents on financial development in the country during periods of recession and boom and in two modes with and without considering the institutional quality index, the threshold structural autoregressive model has been used. According to the research results, the impact of oil resources rent in the country on financial development does not depend on recession and boom, and the determining factor in the curse or blessing of oil resources rent in the country is the quality of institutions. If the rent of resources and the quality of institutions increase at the same time, it is possible to increase financial development in the short term, while in the absence of quality of institutions in the rent of resources, in the short term rent of resources leads to reduced financial development in the country. Accordingly, even if the quality of institutions in the country simultaneously improves, oil resources and the resulting increase in rents can not be considered a long-term factor for improving and growing financial development in the country.

One of the effective factors regarding the impact of natural resource rents on financial development is the role of institutional quality. Existence of natural resources can increase corruption through rent-seeking behaviors if there is no strong institutional framework. Therefore, the role of the institutional quality factor is undeniable. In the present study, the role of institutional quality in the impact of natural resource rents on the financial development of Iran in the period 1984-2019 has been investigated. For this purpose, first to extract the indicators of institutional quality and financial development from the model of principal component analysis and then from the Markov switching model to investigate the effect of natural resource rents on financial development in the country in two cases with and without considering Institutional quality index has been used. Increasing the rent of natural resources has had a negative and significant impact on financial development in low regime of the financial development. Economic growth and trade openness have also had a positive and significant impact on all levels and regimes of financial development. Increasing the rent of natural resources in terms of improving the institutional quality index has had a positive and significant effect on financial development in a low regime. Increasing the inflation has had a negative and significant effect on financial development in all regimes of financial development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most important issues in recent decades in the country is to study the impact of oil revenues on the performance of the country's economy. Some believe in the existence of oil revenues in the success of economic performance, while others believe in the backwardness of the country despite the role of oil revenues. But the agreed point is the importance of the role of institutions in the economic performance of the country.. The present study uses the method of estimating parameters with variable coefficients and Kalman filter approach to investigate the role of institutional quality on the relationship between abundance of oil revenues and economic growth in Iran for the years 1994 to 2018. According to the results; Due to the inadequate economic structure of the country, the abundance of natural resources has not been used efficiently and the abundance of resources has caused certain deviations in the economy and as a result has slowed down the growth of the economy through various channels.

The existence of efficient financial institutions, proper allocation of resources and financial development are the prerequisites for achieving desired economic growth and development. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the factors affecting the financial development of countries. This study examines the impact of natural resources and institutional quality on the financial development of developing countries over 2000-2016 using systemic GMM In this study, we used three indexes for financial development: the Financial Development Index (FDI) developed by IMF, the total credit provided by banks to the private sector as a share of GDP, and the Z-score index. The rent of natural resources is measured as a weighted average of income flows from oil, gas and minerals and Good Governance Indicators are used as measures of institutional quality. The results suggest that natural resources rents have a positive and significant effect on credit provided to the private sector and Financial Development Index, but threaten the stability of the banking sector. In addition, Institutional quality indicators also show a positive effect on three indicators of financial development.

Background and Aim: In addition to health costs, institutions are a factor influencing directly and indirectly the promotion of health in a country. Air pollution, the main cause of which is the industry and in the control and reduction of which the governments have an important role, is another important factor affecting the health situation in a country. This paper reports the results of a study on the health impact of institutions, considering health costs and air pollution. Materials and Methods: The impact of institutions on health in 38 developing countries during the period 2006-2018 was determined using the threshold panel method, health proxy life expectancy index and good governance index as the quality of institutions and explanatory variables of misery, per capita income, health costs and happiness. Based on the CO2 threshold variable, the sample was divided into two homogeneous regimes and the model was obtained with EVIEWS (10) and Stata (15) software packages. Results: The findings indicate that the governance index and happiness in both regimes are significantly positive. Health costs in the upper group were found not to be significant and in the lower group to have little effect on health. In addition, income was significant in both regimes, though with little effect. Finally, the misery index was also found to be significant, but its coefficient in the lower group was not in line with the relevant theories. Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, institutions in developing countries play a major role and form a causal chain among other sectors which are very important in promoting health of the populations. Therefore, in order to promote health in these countries policies should be designed and implemented for institutional improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial development is one of the main goals of economic policymakers to achieve sustainable economic growth. One of the important approaches to financial development is the expansion and deepening of the stock market. However, such expansion needs improvement of good governance, or institutional quality. Given the importance of this issue, the present study investigates the effect of institutional quality indicators (voice and accountability, political stability without violence, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and corruption control) on stock market variables by two Islamic countries group (10 countries) and non-Islamic countries (37 countries) during period from 2002 to 2016 using data panel method. The results showed that the institutional quality components plays an important role in the growth of stock prices relative to the growth of the average return on the whole economy as well as the increase in the volume of stock trading relative to the growth of the total turnover in both groups of countries. However, the impact of these components on the group of Islamic countries is far greater than that of non-Islamic countries. In addition, foreign direct investment, increasing real GDP at a constant price, and government final expenditure at constant price in both groups of countries have a significant impact on the growth of stock trading volumes and stock prices.

The interaction between institutional quality and the mechanism of oil shock diffusion might have a significant effect on macroeconomic dynamics in an oil-exporting country. The literature lacks a formal model to address the role of institutional quality in the economic performance of an oil-rich developing economy. Using a new Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) framework, this study develops a model to investigate the response of macroeconomic variables to changes in institutional quality resulted from oil shocks in Iran as an important oil-exporting country. Our modeling allows us to show how institutional quality and oil revenues affect households, firms, government, and the central bank. The model is solved and calibrated for the period 1959-2017. The results indicate that the destruction of institutional quality caused by a positive oil shock prevents the Iranian economy from reaping the fruits of an increase in oil revenues. Oil revenues and their shocks by destroying the institutional quality through the expansion of rent-seeking ‎activities, increasing transaction costs of production, reducing the impact of government spending, and ‎diverting monetary and fiscal policies from the targets result in negative effects on Iran's non-oil ‎production in the long run.‎ To reduce the destructive effects of oil shocks on institutional quality in the Iranian economy, we suggest the policymakers in Iran reduce the dependency of the government budget on oil revenues.

Intervening government and performing environmental policies are among solutions for reducing production externalities and achieving sustainable development. Indeed, institutional quality is an effective factor in selecting optimal environment policies. This paper tries to identify optimal environmental policy among common public tools for intervening (pollution taxes and permits) in the presence of environmental and economic uncertainties with various institutional quality degrees. In this paper, institutional quality is included in a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model and its effect on choosing environmental policy is considered. The results showed that pollution permit is preferred to taxation on pollution with various institutional quality degrees. In addition, with improvement in institutional quality, if only shock is an environmental shocks, then taxation on pollution will be an optimal policy.

The lack of capital is known to be one of the main causes of many countries’ entrapment in the vicious cycle of poverty and underdevelopment. In addition, the presence or absence of appropriate institutional quality has an impact on poverty rates in these countries. This paper examines the effects of foreign direct investment and institutional quality (rule of law) on reducing poverty. To this end, a random effect panel econometric technique is applied using MENA countries’ data for 2000–2009. The Human Development Index is used as an indicator of poverty reduction. The findings show that the foreign direct investment and the appropriate institutional quality have significant positive effects on reducing poverty and increasing welfare.

Since the 1990s, the role of institutions and the quality of governance along with social capital has been widely recognized as the factors of development. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to examine the role and contribution of institutional arrangements and social capital on the development process. So, in this study, the role and importance of these factors is examined along with economical and technical factors in the process of industrial development using the hierarchical analysis approach. The results show that the social capital and institutional quality factors which are included with the headings of policy and political factors, cultural and social factors, and management and human resources factors are respectively calculated with the weight of 0.31, 0.14, 0.11, as the first priority, the third priority and the fourth priority of the barriers to industrial development. The results also show that the financial and technical factors with the weigh of 0.12 and 0.08, respectively, are the second and sixth priorities. The infrastructure deficiency and limitations in access to resources and raw materials, respectively, with a coefficient of 0.1 and 0.05 are the fifth and seventh priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the effects of institutions quality on the mechanisms that influence the turning of the blessing of oil resource revenues into a curse for Iranian economy and during 1973-2011. The main research question is that in a situation characterized by inefficient and ‎malfunctioning institutions, the injection of oil revenue into the economy, how and through which channels, will cause resource curse to happen. This paper also shows that natural resources, like oil, don't lead to disasters per se; but this is the institutional-structural framework in a country and its interaction with the rents of oil revenues that can lead to the curse of natural resources. This study is a descriptive analysis and the analysis has been carried out by using Institutionalism Approach. According to the findings of this research, the negative effects of oil revenues in Iranian economy caused by inefficient and ‎malfunctioning infrastructures and institutions, lead to short-run and long-run decrease in economic growth and resource curse finally. In Iran, oil revenue shows its immediate effect through fiscal policy and the government's budget (oil price effect on government expenditure) and then through budget deficit, it is related to the monetary sector of the economy (great impact of oil price on liquidity).So volatility of oil revenues and the rigidity of the government budget compared with the oil revenues is one of the main channels which the resource curse have been developed in Iran and caused to liquidity growth and inflation. It has important consequences such as increasing imports, decreasing non-oil export and increasing share of value added of services sector in GDP; the increase in the share of value added of services sector in GDP is such that the service sector (mainly brokerage and intermediary services) exceeds more than 50% of Iran's GDP.

Empirical studies imply that natural resource abundance plays an important role on economic growth in natural-resource-rich countries. The growth literature shows that human capital, education, technology progress and institutional quality are effective factors on economic growth. This article using a panel data firstly investigates the Resource Curse Hypothesis and then analyzes the effective factors and how they affect RCH. Among several effective factors that are reported in present studies, in this paper the main focus is on Human Capital and Institutional Quality. The sample for this research is two groups of petroleum exporting countries: A) Major petroleum exporters and B) Other petroleum exporters which are analyzed for the period 1996-2006. Results show that Resource Curse is seen in major Petroleum Exporting Countries. The findings also confirm the importance of low institutional quality and inadequate investments in human capital in case of resource curse. The results confirm that natural resource abundance has a negative impact on growth if considered in isolation, but a positive direct impact on growth if other explanatory variables, such as human capital, institutional quality, openness and etc. are taken into account.