Search

Environmental pollution and climatic change impel economies to discover new methods for sustainable economic development. Green growth is considered an effective way of environmental sustainability. From this perspective, this study evaluates the impact of fiscal policy shocks, financial institutions, and markets development on the green growth of high-polluting economies. The study employed a CS-NARDL approach for investigating the short-run and long-run estimates. The results show that positive shocks in government spending tend to significantly increase green growth in the long-run. In contrast, the negative shock is government spending does not report any significant influence on green growth in the long-run. Financial institution's and financial market's efficiency have a positive impact on green growth in the long-run. Thus, the findings of the study suggest that government spending should be increased with a particular focus on financial markets efficiency and financial institution's efficiency to enhance green growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to provide a tool for finding investments in the stocks of energy firms that achieve both good financial and reasonable environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. Our methodology entails two steps and is based on diversification-consistent DEA models. The first step involves constructing a financially efficient frontier of investment portfolios by applying the model originally proposed by Branda (Omega 52:65–76. 10.1016/j.ejor.2007.04.014, 2015). In the second step, a new DEA model is proposed in order to find the ESG-efficient portfolios among the ones already identified in the first step and to rank them with respect to their ESG performance. This model is parameterised by a weighting system that allows us to assign different importance to the various ESG outputs. Additionally, the proposal allows an evaluation of both ESG and financial efficiency related to the financial energy market over two periods (the pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 periods), considering renewable energy and non-renewable energy firms both jointly and separately. The results support the better financial performance of the renewable energy stock market compared with that of the non-renewable energy market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polyculture of black tiger shrimp Penaeus monodon, mud crab Scylla paramamosain, and red seaweed Gracilaria tenuistipitata, were applied in improved extensive ponds in the Vietnamese Mekong delta to evaluate production and financial efficiency. The trial consisted of two treatments: (1) non-feed supplement, in which shrimp consumed only natural food in the culture pond; and (2) feed supplement, in which shrimp received commercial feed (50% feeding rate). Treatments were in triplicate; ponds featured natural occurrence of red seaweed. Postlarvae of shrimp and crab were stocked at densities of 4 ind./m2 and 0.15 ind./m2, respectively, and culture for six months. Results showed that shrimp receiving feed supplement demonstrated much better (P < 0.05) growth and survival than those without feed supplementation. Shrimp yield was significantly higher (P > 0.05) in the feed supplement pond (348.9 kg/ha) than in the non-feed supplement pond (169.2 kg/ha). Crab production was similar between the two treatments (P > 0.05), varying from 88.1 to 92.4 kg/ha. Production cost (456.2 US$/ha) in the non-feed supplement pond was significantly lower than that in the feed supplement pond (944.8 US$/ha), but the former produced less profit (2,230.9 US$/ha) than the latter (4,169.2 US$/ha). Notably, the average benefit–cost ratio in the non-feed supplement group (4.84 times) was relatively higher compared to the feed supplement group (4.35 times). These findings suggest that polyculture of shrimp, crab, and seaweed in the improved extensive pond could be applied either non-feed supplement or feed supplement for shrimp, depending on the financial conditions of the farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large risks and opportunities arise for production operations as a result of international governmental initiatives to limit carbon emissions. In instance, high-emitting manufacturing processes may be a reflection of productive inefficiencies and the uncertainty of the prices of carbon dioxide emissions. Recently, there has been a lot of attention paid to the topic of ecologically responsible supply chain management. Therefore, participants in the supply chain have worked together to create effective contracts, often known as green supply chain management contracts. In order to demonstrate the key role of financial efficiency, environmental sustainability, and supply chain management in sustainable growth and digital technology development, this study considers the data for BRICS economies over the period of 2008–2022. However, under the supply chain management, this study considers the innovation efficiency, input, and output to evaluate the external determinants. However, this study employs the OLS, 2SLS, and AMG estimator to demonstrate the robust and reliable outcomes for selected economies. In compile words, this study divides empirical scheme into two different explained variables such as sustainable growth and development of digital technologies. However, to show empirical scheme very catchy, the present study uses the simultaneous equation models. Therefore, all selected indicators of sustainable growth contribute to economic growth efficiently except the foreign direct investment. Besides for the digital technology development, all factors significantly contribute to digital technologies except the carbon emissions and foreign direct investment. Additional robust tests confirm the consistency and stability of the findings reached in this research. Thus, to improve economic performance, digital economy development, and sustainability, authorities in BRICS areas should develop strategies that enhance digital economy development under the green supply chain management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of intellectual capital (IC) and its components (human capital, structural capital, and capital employed) on microfinance institutions' (MFIs) financial and social efficiency. It also determines the moderating impact of external governance on the relationship between IC and MFIs' financial and social efficiency. It employs the Truncated regression model and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), while the Tobit model and Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) were utilized to check the robustness of the estimations. The study uses panel data of 661 MFIs from 86 countries covering 2010–2018 period. The study shows that MFIs are financially efficient rather than socially efficient, albeit MFIs that have high IC can be more financially efficient. Besides, good external governance positively moderates the impact of IC on financial efficiency. The three components of IC have significant effect on MFIs' financial efficiency, albeit external governance has a significant moderating role on the relationship between value of capital employed and financial efficiency only. As for the social outreach efficiency, this study indicates that IC has a significant positive impact on social outreach efficiency, while external governance has no significant moderating effect on the nexus between IC and MFIs' social outreach efficiency. The empirical outcomes of this study have useful implications for MFIs' decision-makers and regulators regarding the need to consider intellectual capital in their quest to enhance the MFIs' efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a plethora of current research on economic or financial resources for fostering innovation. These studies lack the micro-analysis and, more importantly, disregard the effect of environmental control. This study will offer a new analytical paradigm by linking financial growth, environmental regulation, and innovation growth throughout the value chain. Using the information on 30 Chinese provinces collected between 1990 and 2020, we develop a dynamic panel data model to examine the interplay between financial effectiveness, ecological regulation, and research and development (R&D) innovation. We assess the impact that the efficiency of financial organizations and the stock market have on R&D's ability to influence R&D innovation. There are positive spillover effects for stock market efficiency, which boosts the development and conversion of R&D innovation; there are positive spillover effects for financial institution efficiency, which hurts the conversion of R&D innovation, and there is an adverse effect on environmental regulation efficiency. To what extent environmental rules affect the commercialization of research and development innovation is unclear; human capital is an effective motivator for the advancement of R&D innovation, and the volume of FDI may increase the commercialization of R&D innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policymakers around the globe have used various options for controlling CO2 emissions, among which increasing renewable energy consumption has proved to be the most viable. Consequently, this research attempts to look into the effects of financial efficiency, education, and digitization on renewable energy consumption in China from 1994 to 2020. To estimate the short- and long-run relationship between the variables, we have utilized the QARDL approach. The results suggest that the ICT, financial institutions and market development, education, GDP, and CO2 emissions all help improve renewable energy consumption in China in the long run. In the short run, the ICT, financial institutions and markets, education, GDP, and CO2 emissions all proved to be beneficial in increasing renewable energy consumption. In order to test whether our independent variables have a symmetric or asymmetric impact on renewable energy consumption, the Wald test is applied, which confirms the long-run nonlinear impact of ICT, financial institutions and markets, education, GDP, and CO2 emissions on renewable energy consumption, while the short-run asymmetric impacts are confirmed for a financial institution and GDP only. Therefore, governments should reinforce the amalgamation of digitalization, financial efficiency, and education while formulating policies for renewable energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming has recently become a significant concern for world leaders. Financial efficiency, environmental regulations, and green technologies are widely recognized as important contributors to a clean environment. Consequently, the primary motive of this study is to investigate the impact of financial efficiency, environmental regulations, and green technologies on CO2 emissions and energy efficiency in top polluted economies over the period 1995 to 2020. To that end, the study relies on the ARDL-PMG model, which can provide both short- and long-run estimates simultaneously. The findings of the model imply that environmental innovation and regulations helps improve energy efficiency and environmental quality in the long run. In contrast, financial development deteriorates the environmental quality and improves energy efficiency. Therefore, policy experts in top polluted economies must increase research and development activities to promote green technologies and introduce strict environmental-related regulations to complement other mitigating policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the degree of persistence of financial efficiency for the hospitality and tourism industry in India. The paper deploys the Data Envelopment Analysis technique to generate overall technical efficiency scores as well as pure technical efficiency scores. Furthermore, a dynamic panel technique proposed by Arellano and Bond (1991), is employed to test the degree of persistence of financial efficiency and its key determinants. The results confirm positive and significant persistence of efficiency for the sample firms from the hospitality industry in India. The overall results indicate that hospitality firms in India can create entry and exit barriers to generate positive persistence of financial efficiency. The study suggests regulators specifically focus on policies that can enhance the competitive dynamics of the industry. Such measures may make it imperative for the management of the firms in the sector to streamline their financial management policies to control costs and devise methods for the enhancement of revenues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are two natural efficiency measures associated with microfinance banking: social efficiency, measuring to what extent the micro-capital becomes accessible to the smallest entrepreneurs with no previous access to external funding, and financial efficiency, measuring the sustainability of the microfinance business and its attractiveness for investors providing the funds. We study the relationship between the two objectives (which might be incompatible in some cases) on a panel of 579 microfinance institutions across 36 Sub-Saharan African countries in period 2004–2017, covering the Big Crisis, and identify determinants of both types of efficiency. The main analytic tool is data envelopment analysis. We also study further relations between the microfinance sector and institutional factors of the corresponding economy, such as the presence of the World Bank programs or mandatory caps on interest rates. The main findings are as follows. Microfinance institutions focusing on lending to small and medium enterprises demonstrate a higher level of efficiency (both social and financial). Gender focus of the lending institutions also has a significant influence on the efficiency. The presence of the private credit bureau on a market is associated with significantly higher efficiency levels in both social and financial aspects. Public credit registers, however, are not associated with a positive efficiency trend. The presence of general microfinance legislation shows no significant influence, however the mandatory interest rate cap seems to affect the performance. In general, the research indicated no strong evidence of mutual exclusiveness of the social and financial objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of financial development on carbon emissions is a hot topic. Although some researches study the heterogeneous impacts of financial development on carbon emissions at the country level, few paper has investigated their heterogeneous relations within the same country. This paper, applying geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR), studies the spatial–temporal heterogeneity of the impacts of financial development on carbon emissions across China's 30 provinces from 2003 to 2017. The results show that financial development proxied by bank credit indicators curbs carbon emissions in most provinces most of the time, while that proxied by stock market indicator exhibits nonlinear relationships in most provinces, such as U-shaped, inverse U-shaped, and inverse N-shaped. The paper concludes first that financial development proxied by different indicators may exert varied impacts on carbon emissions. Second, the impact of financial development on carbon emissions shows great heterogeneity among different provinces and different years: it may be curbing or increasing, and even it is curbing, its curbing effects differ greatly across provinces and years. Third, the impact of financial development on CO2 is not always monotonic; instead, it may be nonlinear. Regional segmentation of financial markets may explain the heterogeneity. Some policy suggestions are also given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pediatrics is an integral part of public health services. With the impact of the epidemic and the high-quality transformation of China's development, the contradiction in the supply of pediatric public services has become more prominent. Scientific evaluation of the efficiency and quality of pediatric services, clarifying the redundancy of pediatric input resources and adjusting the construction of pediatric services with the help of influencing factors have become important research topics. This paper uses the three-stage SBM-DEA model to summarize the efficiency of China's pediatric services using panel data from 31 provinces and cities in 2008–2019, taking into account undesired outputs such as doctor-patient disputes. Among them, the evaluation system focuses on the role of financial, capital, and other factors, and the Tobit regression model is used to clarify the degree of influence of various factors. The study found that (1) China's pediatric service supply has the characteristics of geographic heterogeneity. (2) The redundancy of various resource inputs is apparent, and the supporting capacity of financial capital is not significant. (3) The economic, technological, and professional environment helps to digest the redundancy of inputs. (4) Capital, urbanization, education development, and birth rate increase under financial operation will promote the increase of the efficiency of pediatric public services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MENA region is undergoing rapid demographic transition, where 50% of the population is under the age 25 and high youth unemployment rates are argued to be one of the main sources of political instability. In this paper we evaluate the economic impact of the demographic transition for selected MENA countries, namely: Iran, Morocco and Egypt who experience different speeds of transition. We have developed a general equilibrium overlapping generations model with a cost of capital mobilisation as a proxy for financial markets' efficiency and simulated the demographic trends in each country. We find that the demographic shift will be an important driver for growth in the upcoming decades. Furthermore, our results show that a more efficient financial sector leads to better economic performance. Specifically, youth are the primary beneficiaries: an increase in the financial sector efficiency can reduce up to 8 percentage points of the the unemployment rate for the youngest age group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes practices of customer-driven services applied in the leading Russian bank to avoid the impact of financial sanctions (2014–2019). We show how economic sanctions and strict national policies triggered this bank to increase flexibility in customer care to attract more capital from their existing clients. The project comprised three stages: (1) to analyse requirements and to develop "as-is" state of processes; (2) to analyse best practices and to improve processes under the scope of flexibility and customer orientation; (3) to implement the new vision in "to-be" state and final verification. At the third research stage to assess the results of processes improvement in the bank within a year we have applied a set of methods based on data envelopment analysis which provides a multidimensional understanding of processes and new scopes of customer's value profiles. We have found that process reengineering result could give the contribution already at the first month of implementation and argue the findings could be used to introduce flexible data-driven customer care and improve customer-related processes in organisations worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the time series data of the Yangtze River Delta region from 1993 to 2015, this paper uses the state space model and the mediating effect model to investigate the time-varying effect and its mechanism of financial development (measured by two indicators: financial scale and financial efficiency), urbanization on carbon emissions. The results show a positive in the short term and negative in the long-run impact of financial scale on carbon emissions, while the impact of financial efficiency on carbon emissions is negative in the short term and positive in the long term, and the impact of urbanization on carbon emissions is always positive. Moreover, the results of mediating effect test demonstrate that urbanization is a positive partial mediating effect in the path of financial scale and financial efficiency influencing carbon emissions, and the mediating effect accounts for 71.64% and 61.69% of the total effect, respectively. The mediating effect of financial development includes chain effect and parallel effect; in the chain mediating effect, financial scale has a negative mediating effect with 27.40% of the total effect in the path of urbanization affecting carbon emissions, whereas financial efficiency plays a positive role with 2.07%; in the parallel mediating effect, the individual effect of financial scale and financial efficiency accounts for 24.39% and 1.05%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indian public commercial banks play a crucial role in the financial support for the economic development, poverty alleviation, and women's empowerment. As social banks, they have dual performance objectives of financing the vulnerable sections of society as well as providing mainstream financial services. Balancing these twin missions is the biggest challenge for these hybrid enterprises. To date, no study has been published giving evidence on whether these banks are efficient in both facets of their dual goals. For this reason, this paper adds to the literature by measuring the social and financial efficiency of a sample of 26 Indian public banks over 2011–2014 by using an innovative Multi-activity Data Envelopment Analysis (MDEA) model with shared inputs and undesirable outputs. Our study also examines whether there is a conflict or trade-off between socially responsible and for-profit banking practices. We find that Indian public banks have managed their dual mission relatively well, but on average, they have been much more efficient in social (99.4%) than conventional banking (81.9%) activity. Moreover, this study shows a significant synergy effect between social and financial performance. However, when regional differences across India are considered by comparing the social and financial efficiency scores for different degrees of economic and human development in Indian states, the significant synergy effect is only confirmed in those public banks located in less more economically developed Indian states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Social Economy financial institutions, credit unions have traditionally been considered less efficient than traditional banking entities. However, like banks and savings banks, they have to be as efficient and competitive as possible to survive in today’s business environment, especially at times of crisis. To date, there have been very few studies on their efficiency and practically none for the crisis period. Moreover, almost all the existing studies assess only financial efficiency, without considering their social function. This study examines the levels of both financial and social efficiency in Spanish credit unions as well as their main determinants during the recent crisis. We apply the two-stage double bootstrap data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodology based on panel data corresponding to all the credit unions active in Spain between 2008 and 2013. The empirical results indicate that financial and social efficiency achieved an acceptable level, although on average the former was slightly greater than the latter. We also find that both age and merger and acquisition activity were positively influential on the financial efficiency of credit unions but had a significant negative effect on their social efficiency. Moreover, the regional location of such entities and the financial crisis were also crucial determinants of both types of efficiency. Our findings are therefore useful for all the stakeholders of credit unions to know if these entities have been efficient according to a double bottom line accounting in the crisis period and hence to maintain successful social management that is compatible with satisfactory financial efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, the efficient management of water has become the focus of vast debate, both in the academic literature and in the practical and regulatory field. Due to the growing importance and scarcity of water resources, it has become crucial to better understand how to improve the organizational efficiency of water utilities. By adopting an accounting perspective and using statistical methods, this paper analyzes whether and to what extent investment and financial strategies differ among clusters of water utilities with different ownership structures. The paper focuses on the Italian water industry, a context considered particularly appropriate due to the coexistence of utilities with different ownership structures. The main results of the paper show that ownership affects the level of investment as well as the financial structure and costs of water utilities. The evidence provided by this study should encourage national governments and regulatory authorities to select water utilities with the greatest investment potential measured in terms of financial efficiency and effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]