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This study examines the impact of volatility on the returns of nine National Stock Exchange (NSE) indices before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The study employed generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) modelling to analyse investor risk and the impact of volatility on returns. The study makes several contributions to the existing literature. First, it uses advanced volatility forecasting models, such as ARCH and GARCH, to improve volatility estimates and anticipate future volatility. Second, it enhances the analysis of index return volatility. The study found that the COVID-19 period outperformed the pre-COVID-19 and overall periods. Since the Nifty Realty Index is the most volatile, Nifty Bank, Metal, and Information Technology (IT) investors reaped greater returns during COVID-19 than before. The study provides a comprehensive review of the volatility and risk of nine NSE indices. Volatility forecasting techniques can help investors to understand index volatility and mitigate risk while navigating these dynamic indices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study mainly aims to test the impact of gender diversity on a firm's performance. Namely, the non-linear and the quantile impact on the listed companies in Palestine Exchange during the period 2010 to 2020. The study also aims to determine the impact of a firm's internal characteristics on gender diversity. The study uses instrument analysis, traditional panel models, and quantile regression to fulfil the aims. The results demonstrate the existence of a critical mass for the impact of gender diversity on firms' performance and that mass is about 30% for the ROA and 41% for the EPS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically examines the effect of biomass energy consumption and economic complexity on environmental sustainability in G7 economies. The current study attempts to report a comprehensive analysis of biomass energy and economic complexity on ecological and carbon footprints and carbon emissions. We employ data from 1990 to 2019 and adopt robust panel econometric techniques that account for the analysis's cross‐sectional dependence. We conduct cointegration analysis, pooled ordinary least squares (OLS), system generalized method of moments (GMM) and conditional quantile model for our empirical analysis. The empirical findings show that both biomass energy consumption and economic complexity are detrimental to the ecological footprint and carbon footprint. Additionally, we find that globalization positively affects the environment, while we find some evidence that bureaucratic quality improves environmental quality. Finally, in line with other research, we find that economic growth has detrimental effects on the environment. Our results suggest that policymakers should be more cautious in promoting biomass as a clean energy source and that the G7 economies should take advantage of their leading position in innovation to invest more in sustainable practices and investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving environmental quality across South Asia has become one of the utmost important policy agendas of the concerned governments. The susceptibility of the majority of the South Asian countries to multifaceted climate change adversities has motivated the need to identify the factors that can function to ensure environmental sustainability across South Asia. Although several studies have highlighted the importance of globalization and cleaner energy use in tackling the environmental degradaton issues of the South Asian countries, very little is known regarding the impacts of regional trade and renewable energy transition in this regard. Hence, this paper aims to scrutinize the effects of enhancing intra‐regional trade integration and undergoing renewable energy transition on per capita carbon dioxide emissions in the context of six South Asian nations between 1990 and 2016. The results from the recently developed cross‐sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lag regression approach, accounting for cross‐sectional dependency and slope heterogeneity issues, reveal that facilitating trade among the South Asian neighbors reduces carbon emissions in both the short and long run. Moreover, enhancing the share of renewable energy in the aggregate energy consumption figures is also found to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in both the short and long run. Furthermore, both regional trade integration and renewable energy transition are found to jointly reduce carbon dioxide emissions in South Asia. The results also authenticate the existence of the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis, while financial development and urbanization are found to boost carbon dioxide emissions only in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of disclosing greenhouse gas (GHG) information mandatorily on the cost of equity capital (COC) using a longitudinal unbalanced panel database of the United Kingdom's FTSE 350 firms for the period 2011–2016. We use a nonlinear panel quantile regression (PQR) model to examine the relationship between GHG disclosure (GHGD) and COC in the United Kingdom. This technique was supplemented by conducting a two‐step generalised method of moment (GMM) estimation to address any concerns related to the potential existence of endogeneity problems. Our findings suggest that high‐level GHGD appeared to be negatively associated with COC up to a certain level, which is known as the turning point; then, any increase in GHGD is likely to increase the COC. This means that the nonlinear association between GHGD and COC is evidenced in our study and takes a U shape. Likewise, our findings are associative of a moderating effect of the 2013 carbon disclosure regulation (CDR) on the GHGD–COC nexus. We argue that mandatory GHGD and GHG risk are linked so that those companies that are associated with higher GHG risk have a tendency to be better disclosers. Consequently, we urge regulators to design GHGD regulations in a way that mirrors corporate environmental risk and leads to a lower COC in order to align the interests of corporations with those of the society at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to examine the relationship between foreign finance, economic growth and CO2 to investigate if the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) exists as an empirical evidence in 32 selected Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Design/methodology/approach: This study used quantitative analysis to test two main hypotheses: H1 is the U-shape relationship between foreign finance and environment, and H2 is the N-shaped association between economic growth and environment. In doing so, this study used panel data techniques. The panel set contained 32 countries over the period from 1990 to 2015, with 27 observations for each country. This study applied a panel OLS estimator via fixed-effects control to address heterogeneity and mitigate endogeneity. Generalized method of moments (GMM) with fixed effects-instrumental variables (FE-IV) and diagnostic tests were also used. Findings: The results showed that foreign finance and environmental quality have an inverted U-shaped association. The three proxies' foreign investment, foreign assets and remittance in the first stages contribute significantly to CO2 emissions, but after the threshold point is reached, these proxies become "environmentally friendly" by their contribution to reducing CO2 emissions. Also, a non-linear relationship denotes that foreign investment in OECD countries enhances the importance, as a proxy of foreign finance has greater environmental quality than foreign assets. Additionally, empirical results show that remittances received is linked to the highest polluted levels until a threshold point is reached, at which point it then helps reduce CO2 emissions. The GMM and FE-IV results provide robust evidence on inverse U-shaped relationship, while the N-shaped relationship explains that economic growth produces more CO2 emissions at the first phase of growth, but the quadratic term confirms this effect is negative after a specific level of GDP is reached. Then, this economic growth makes the environment deteriorate. These results are robust even after controlling for the omitted variable issue. The IV-FE results indicate an N-shaped relationship in the OECD countries. Practical implications: Most studies have used different economic indicators as proxies to show the effects of these indicators on the environment, but they are flawed and outdated regarding the large social challenges facing contemporary, socio-financial economic systems. To overcome these disadvantages, the social, institutional and environmental aspects of economic development should also be considered. Hence, this study aims to explain this issue as a relationship with several proxies in regard to environmental, foreign finance and economic aspects. Originality/value: This paper uses updated data sets for analyzing the relationship between foreign finance and economic growth as a new proxy for pollution. Also, this study simulates the financial and environmental future to show their effect on investments in different OECD countries. While this study enhances the literature by establishing an innovative control during analysis, this will increase to add value. This study is among the few studies that empirically investigate the non-linear relationship between finance and environmental degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy poverty is defined as insufficient access to modern energy resources which are relatively cleaner than the traditionally utilized ones. In this regard, the incidence of energy poverty is particularly higher in the cases of the developing countries across the globe. Accordingly, the chronic energy poverty issues in the developing countries within Sub-Saharan Africa have become a major socioeconomic and environmental concern for the associated governments. Hence, this study aims to evaluate the effects of energy efficiency gains and shocks to other key macroeconomic factors on energy poverty in the context of selected Sub-Saharan African nations. In this study, we measure energy poverty in terms of the lack of access to clean cooking fuels and technologies for the population of the selected Sub-Saharan African countries. The overall findings from the common correlated effects panel regression analysis reveal that energy efficiency gains initially aggravate the energy poverty situation but improve it later on; consequently, a U-shaped relationship between energy efficiency and access to clean cooking fuels and technologies is evidenced. Besides, the predicted threshold levels of energy efficiency are observed to be higher than the average energy efficiency level of the Sub-Saharan African nations. Moreover, the results also portray that economic growth, carbon dioxide emissions, foreign direct investment inflows, and international trade are effective in reducing energy poverty. Conversely, financial development is witnessed to be ineffective in influencing the incidence of energy poverty in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The globalization revolution has led to many countries considering advancing technology, which has led to electronic finance becoming an important aspect in all economic and financial sectors. This study aims to investigate the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on the financial development index of six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries from the period 2000 to 2016. The results are reported in terms of two main ICT variables: fixed broadband and Internet users as a proxy of ICT and domestic credit to private sector as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) and broad money supply/GDP as two proxies of the financial development index. This methodology used fixed effects (FEs) estimations, and the results show that an increase in fixed broadband has a statistically significant and positive effect on both proxies of financial development. In terms of domestic credit as a percentage of the GDP proxy, the positive effects of ICT (broadband) are greater than the one from Internet users. A 1% increase in fixed broadband leads to approximately 2% increase in financial development, but the Internet user variable resulted in about a 0.09% increase. The other money supply proxy increased by 0.40% when ICT increased by 1%. Additionally, money supply increased by 0.11% when the Internet user ratio increased by 1%.To control for the endogeneity problem, the study used a generalized method of moments estimator, and the results confirm the previous results of the FE. Moreover, the negative impact of economic growth and natural resources was found to be valid and significant, while urbanization and trade openness were found to significantly and positively affect both financial development proxies. The main conclusion of the study is that GCC countries should take action in building an effective joint information system to help construct efficient economic sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]