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A plethora of empirical work has aimed to investigate the determinants of the shadow economy over the last few years. The impacts of government spending on the shadow economy have been explored. However, the effect of a moderating factor that affects this nexus has been largely ignored in the existing literature. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to explore the moderating role of government effectiveness on public spending on the education–shadow economy nexus, in eight Southeast Asian countries from 2001 to 2017. This paper uses the dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS), fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS), and the panel causality approach to analyze the data. Empirical findings from this paper indicate that public spending on education and government effectiveness negatively impacts the size of the shadow economy. Interestingly, government effectiveness serves as a critical catalyst in shaping the effect of government spending on education. We also observed that economic growth and foreign direct investment have significant negative effects, while unemployment and inflation have significant positive effects on the shadow economy. Additionally, the causality results confirmed the presence of bidirectional causality in public spending education, government effectiveness, economic growth, foreign direct investment, and unemployment in the shadow economy. This study recommends that governments and policymakers pursue policies and programs that invest more in education and enhance government effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether mineral and natural resources (NR) are a blessing or a curse for economic growth (ECON_G) is still a debatable issue among scholars and policymakers. Therefore, the primary goal of the present study is to investigate the relationship between mineral resources (MR), NR, and ECON_G to re‐assess the “Resource Curse Theory.” For this purpose, a panel of six top resource‐rich developing economies (China, Brazil, Russia, Iran, the Republic of the Congo, and Saudi‐Arabia) over the 1995 to 2021 period is analyzed using dynamic ordinary least square, fully modifies ordinary least square and method of moments quantile regression approaches. The basic findings of the above‐mentioned techniques reveal the significantly positive impact of both NR and MR on ECON_G in the selected economies. The estimation outputs of the method of moments quantile regression also reveal the significant positive contribution of these resources in ECON_G at all quantiles (0.10–0.90). Thus, the study finds that the Resource Bless Hypothesis is valid as both NR and MR support the absence of the Resource Curse Hypothesis in these countries. Furthermore, the findings of the Granger Causality test reveal that bidirectional causal association is present between NR and ECON_G and MR and ECON_G. The study recommends that policymakers and governments in the resource‐rich countries should promote the development of the mining sector and sustainable resource extraction by properly monitoring the resource sector. More importantly, implementing resource governance initiatives are needed to be prioritized for transforming resources as a blessing for the studied countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study looks at whether credit unions, a type of microfinance, increase or decrease poverty in Cameroon from 2004 Q1 to 2021 Q4. Method/design: The fully modified ordinary least square, dynamic ordinary least square, and conical co‐integration is applied. Findings: The findings reveal a long‐term association between credit union measures and poverty levels. The results indicate that the number of credit unions, the number of commercial bank branches, and credit to the private sector negatively relate to poverty levels. This implies that as the number of credit unions increases, the poverty level increases as the credit unions tend to exploit the poor population. Outstanding deposits positively impact poverty levels, which imply that members' deposits alleviate poverty. Research implications: The government should refurbish the existing programs to enhance credit unions' activities to focus more on banking the poor population especially in remote areas. The credit unions should increase deposit mobilization from the public to empower individuals and businesses. The government should regulate the number of credit unions being created to limit exploitation. The government should intervene to ensure that credit unions' policy regarding lending, interest rates, and loan recovery procedures are mutually agreed upon by the parties. Originality/novelty: Limited studies used secondary data focusing on credit unions. The studies give conflicting results: Some studies reveal that microfinance banks positively affect poverty reduction. Some indicate negative effects of microfinance on poverty reduction. Others show that microfinance institutions do not significantly influence poverty reduction. Different opinions exist among depositors and borrowers of credit unions concerning poverty alleviation. Some credit union members hold that credit unions increase poverty, while others argue that credit unions alleviate poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses whether Coronavirus health shocks and government responses in terms of lockdown policy and stringency measures impact stock markets in Africa. We found that stock markets appeared to be more negatively responsive to growth in total number of COVID‐19 reported cases than the growth in deaths in the case of Nigeria and South Africa. While for Egypt, the stock market reacted significantly negative to both COVID‐19‐related indicators. Our results further show that government stringency policy has significant negative effect on stock market returns in the case of Nigeria and South Africa, but positive in the case of Egypt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigates the effects of renewable energy, nonrenewable energy, and foreign direct investment (FDI) on output growth in the five South Asian economies. For this purpose, a panel growth model has developed over the period 1990–2018. Pedroni cointegration estimates indicate that renewable, nonrenewable energy, FDI, and gross domestic product (GDP) are cointegrated. The results from the panel fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) depict the nonrenewable energy stimulates output growth. FDI also has a positive impact on output growth. Besides, the empirical results confirm that renewable energy has a significant and positive impact on output growth in the South Asian economies. The findings suggest that South Asian economies should investment in renewable energy for sustainable economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study estimates the Nigerian import demand function with the view to finding the degree of responsiveness of imports to domestic product prices while controlling for exchange rate (EXR), gross domestic product and foreign reserves. To refine inference about stationarity in the presence of structural breaks, the study employed the Lee and Strazicich and Zivot‐Andrews stationarity tests, which all confirmed that the series are integrated of order one. Both the ARDL bound testing for cointegration and the Johansen cointegration approach all confirmed long‐run relationship among the variables. From the cointegrating regression estimates using the Saikkonen and Stock‐Watson Dynamic Ordinary Least Square procedure and the Phillip and Hansen's Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square technique, we found that imports in Nigeria are domestic inflation or cross elastic in the long run. The study, however, found import demand to be inelastic to EXR and income, same as to foreign exchange reserves. The sensitivity of these estimates was confirmed with the ARDL procedure suggested by Peseran, Shin and Smith. With the Granger non‐causality test using the Toda‐Yamamoto's technique, we found unidirectional causality running from domestic inflation to import demand, implying that previous values of domestic inflation offer additional information to explaining future values of aggregate import demand. Diversification of domestic production as well as other policies directed at enhancing price and quality competiveness of domestic products were recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the long run equilibrium relationship among military expenditure, financial development, energy use, economic growth and environmental degradation in Turkey for the period of 1960–2014. Ecological footprint and carbon dioxide emissions are used as separate proxies for environmental degradation. Fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) estimator results suggest that military expenditure, energy use and economic growth increase the environmental degradation while financial development improves the environmental quality in Turkey. Toda Yamamoto (1995) causality test results reveal that there is a unidirectional causality running from military expenditure to CO2 emissions and ecological footprint; and a bidirectional causality between military expenditure and economic growth. The findings of the study confirm the existence of destruction theory for the case of Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environmental impact of information and communication technology (ICT) has drawn increasing attention for two decades. The behaviour of ICT is positive towards economic growth; however, its environmental implications cannot be ignored. This empirical research explores the roles of ICT, economic growth, and energy consumption in environmental pollution across different regions from 1990 to 2015. Robust long‐run panel data estimation methods fully modified ordinary least square and dynamic ordinary least square and Driscoll–Kraay regression are applied. To summarise the results, ICT reduces the level of CO2 emissions across high‐ and middle‐income countries; however, contrary to this, ICT increases CO2 emissions in low‐income countries. Also, energy consumption is responsible for the increase in CO2 emissions in all income groups as expected. Finally, the environmental Kuznets curve is proved in all income groups. It is inferred that high‐ and middle‐income regions of the world have achieved a level of environmental sustainability in the significance of ICT, but this is not the case in low‐income countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the study is to empirically examine the effects of urbanization, energy consumption, and per capita GDP on CO2 emissions for all member countries from BRICS. Panel data over the period 1990-2014 and the STRIPAT model are used. After panel unit root tests, the method of fully modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) is applied as an analytical technique. Empirical results reveal that urbanization has a positive and significant relationship with CO2 emissions in all BRICS countries with the exception of Russia. Results also show that GDP per capita in cases of Brazil, Russia, and South Africa will help to mitigate CO2 emissions, while the results are opposite in the cases of India and China. Likewise, energy consumption is positively and significantly causing CO2 emissions in cases of Brazil, India, and China, whereas, it is helping to reduce CO2 emission in Russia, while energy consumption has no impact in the case of South Africa. The findings of the study suggest important policy implications. This study recommends introducing less pollution emission of transport, and constructing long-term and effective system in renewable energy development in order to mitigate side effects of urbanization on the environment. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 36: 523-531, 2017 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foreign trade matters considerably more than ever in today's integrated economies, and the wealth of benefits afforded by air transport is one of the cornerstones of international trade. Therefore, to shed light on the precise role of air cargo, seen as an important motor of growth, this paper provides an empirical model to examine the relationships among trade openness, air freight volume and GDP per capita using panel cointegration techniques for a sample of Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) countries during the 1970-2002 period. The analysis substantiates that there are cointegrated relationships among the three variables and that they are bound together in a long-run equilibrium. Furthermore, evidence from fully modified Ordinary Least Squares panel estimations also indicates that positive trade and air freight shocks contribute to real GDP per capita. In addition, improvements in air cargo services are accompanied by an increase in trade openness in ECA countries and vice versa. These results underscore the important role of air freight and demonstrate that it should not have been overlooked in earlier studies. Finally, the empirical findings have important policy implications for our sample countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]