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The world’s “100 worst invasive species” were listed in 2000. The list is taxonomically diverse, often cited (typically for single-species studies), and its species are frequently reported in global biodiversity data bases. We acted on the principle that these notorious species should be well-reported to help answer two questions about global biogeography of invasive species (i.e., not just their invaded ranges): (1) “how are data distributed globally?” and (2) “what predicts diversity?” We collected location data for each of the 100 species from multiple data bases; 95 had sufficient data for analyses. For question (1), we mapped global species richness and cumulative occurrences since 2000 in (0.5 degree)2 grids. For question (2) we compared alternative regression models representing non-exclusive hypotheses for geography (i.e., spatial autocorrelation), sampling effort, climate, and anthropocentric effects. Reported locations of the invasive species were spatially-biased, leaving large gaps on multiple continents. Accordingly, species richness was best explained by both anthropocentric effects not often used in biogeographic models (Government Effectiveness, Voice & Accountability, human population size) and typical natural factors (climate, geography; R2 = 0.87). Cumulative occurrence was strongly related to anthropocentric effects (R2 = 0.62). We extract five lessons for invasive species biogeography; foremost are the importance of anthropocentric measures for understanding invasive species diversity patterns and large lacunae in their known global distributions. Despite those knowledge gaps, advanced models here predict well the biogeography of the world’s worst invasive species for much of the world.

This study investigates the relationship between sustainable economic growth and foreign direct investment (FDI) in Saudi Arabia from 1980 to 2023. The ARDL approach and VECM technique are employed to analyze the short-run and long-run dynamics. The short-run results show mixed effects. Sustainable economic growth has a positive impact on current and one-period lagged FDI but a negative impact on the two periods lagged. Trade openness and infrastructure negatively affect FDI in the short run. Interestingly, oil rents and real economic growth also have negative short-run impacts on FDI, but these effects become positive with a longer lag. Long-run analysis reveals a negative relationship between trade openness, infrastructure, and oil rents with FDI, suggesting a potential crowding-out effect. Trade openness has a positive long-run impact on most variables, including sustainable growth, FDI, real growth, and CO2 emissions. Oil rents also have a positive long-run impact on these variables. This study finds six bidirectional causal relationships in the short run, primarily between trade openness, infrastructure, oil rents, and FDI. Unidirectional causality runs from oil rents, trade openness, exchange rate, sustainable growth, and real growth to FDI and infrastructure. Additionally, CO2 emissions cause FDI, and trade openness causes sustainable growth. While sustainable economic growth benefits FDI in the long run, short-term policies regarding trade openness and infrastructure require reevaluation. Oil revenue and real economic growth may initially deter FDI, but this reverses in the long term. To attract sustainable FDI, policymakers should focus on long-term economic growth strategies and consider reforms in trade and infrastructure policies. A comprehensive FDI strategy that moves beyond oil dependence and leverages trade openness is crucial to long-term economic diversification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In most cases, researchers assume that control of corruption, rule of law, accountability, and government expenditure tend to have a positive impact on government effectiveness. Nonetheless, recent theoretical and empirical evidence supports a mixed relationship between these variables. The paper, therefore, seeks to answer the extent to which corruption, the rule of law, accountability, and government expenditure affect government effectiveness. We employed Johansen method of cointegration and vector error correction model to examine the long-run and short-run relationship between the variables under study. By using Sri Lankan data covering the period from 1996 to 2020, we find a significant and positive relationship only between the control of corruption and government effectiveness both in the long run and in the short run. Yet, rule of law has a positive and significant impact on government effectiveness only in the long run. Voice and accountability, and government expenditure affect the government's effectiveness negatively in the long run and positively in the short run. The article demonstrates that weak anti-corruption mechanisms and weak legal and criminal justice systems seem to have a detrimental impact on government effectiveness in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

In this study, factors influencing the economic complexity (ECI) of Canada in the long term have been examined using the VECM, FMOLS, CCR, and DOLS methods from 1995 to 2022. The independent variables in the empirical model include Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Research and Development (R&D), Trade (TRD), Education (EDU), Political Stability (PS), and Government Effectiveness (GE). An increase in GDP, R&D, EDU and TRD demonstrates a strong positive effect on economic complexity. This emphasizes the crucial significance of production, productivity, efficiency and globalization in shaping the complex network of economic processes. PS and GE play crucial roles, as even slight improvements in these areas can have a positive impact on the ECI. This outcome highlights the beneficial impact of stable governance in promoting economic complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the influence of government effectiveness, health expenditure, and sustainable development goals (SDGs) on life expectancy in Pakistan. To accomplish this, a systematic analysis was conducted on time series data spanning from 2000 to 2020. Cointegration analysis was utilized to evaluate the long-term integration of all variables, while a comprehensive causality test was performed to investigate the short-term links among government effectiveness, health expenditure, SDGs, and life expectancy. The findings of the Johansen Cointegration test definitively confirmed the presence of long-term cointegration among all variables. In addition, the results of the Granger causality test show that there is a one-way causal relationship between government performance, health spending, and SDGs to life expectancy in the short term. The validation of both enduring and immediate connections among these factors emphasizes the crucial significance of healthcare services in Pakistan. Therefore, it is important to push for more healthcare investments and increased national budget allocations by the Pakistani government. Prioritizing the allocation of resources towards healthcare, bolstering the efficiency of the administration, and attaining SDG targets are all crucial for enhancing life expectancy in Pakistan. The study's results also carry significant policy implications, underscoring the necessity of strategically implementing health expenditure and SDG targets to enhance human capital and population well-being, as demonstrated by the increased life expectancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Millions of people in developing countries lack access to modern energies and for long, these countries have relied on energy subsidies to scale up their access rate. However, there is no evidence that those energy subsidies contribute to energy poverty reduction. Similarly, while good governance and strong institutions are touted as critical for implementing energy policy and improving access rate, empirical evidence of their impact remains very scanty. This study assesses the impact of energy subsidies and institutional quality on access to electricity in selected developing countries. Result from the Praise-Winston regression revealed that energy subsidies as a policy tool for achieving universal electrification do not hold in the selected developing countries. We also found that energy subsidies accompanied by a strong governance mechanism can help developing countries scale up their electricity access rate. We recommend practical ways to help developing countries achieve universal access to modern energy solution. Plain language summary: Nexus between Energy Subsidies, Energy Access, and institutional quality in Developing Countries The study aims to investigate the impact of fuel subsidies on energy access in developing countries using secondary data collected from the World Bank and International Energy Agency. Findings from the research showed that fuel subsidies are detrimental to expanding electricity access in developing countries. However, when these subsidies are accompanied by a strong regulatory quality that blocks all forms of leakages and inefficiencies, they could actually help to promote access to electricity in the selected developing countries. This result implies that governments in developing countries providing subsidies on energy products need to strengthen the administration of such subsidies in order to maximize its developmental potentials. However, one limitation of our research is that we consider only 14 developing countries owing to the paucity of comprehensive panel data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the interaction between health expenditure and health outcomes with due consideration for government effectiveness across developing African economies. The rich data for this study draw from forty-five Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries covering the period 1960 to 2022. The analysis follows a country-specific comparative manner using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model as the major estimation technique. The results indicate that poor health outcomes are not due to inadequate budgetary allocations alone. Specifically, this study found a cointegrating relationship and strong adjustment of health outcomes deriving from the shocks and dynamics of not just health expenditures, but also government effectiveness. It is therefore recommended that strong institutions and safety nets be created to guard against corruption and leakages that derail the beneficial impact of public health spending. Also, government expenditures should be focused more on cottage and primary health dimensions to better mitigate adverse health conditions in SSA countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work was conducted to determine how firm size, investment, inflation, and government effectiveness influence dividend policies proxy by dividend payout of quoted firms in Ghana. Twenty-two firms in total were sampled for this study and included trading, manufacturing, construction, and mining companies for the period 2011 to 2020. The firms cut across different industries namely telecommunications, consumer goods, constructions, oil and gas, technological companies, consumer services, and manufacturing companies quoted in Ghana. Panel data for all 22 non-financial firms were collected from the financial statement, ratios were calculated to ascertain the measurement of the variables under study. The Generalized Method of Moment was adopted and a multiple regression analysis was performed to determine the impact of the variables on dividend policy proxy by dividend payout ratio. The results of the study indicated that the log of total assets had a negative relationship with dividend policy significant at all conventional levels. Investment and government effectiveness also had a positive relationship with dividend policy. Unfortunately, inflation had an insignificant effect on the dividend payout of quoted firms in Ghana for the period under review.

Abstract This study explores the complex relationships involving ecological footprints, energy use, carbon emissions, governance efficiency, economic prosperity, and financial stability in South Asian nations spanning the period from 2000 to 2022. Employing various methodologies such as cross-sectional dependence tests, co-integration analysis, and first- and second-generation unit-root tests, we use a panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag model, feasible generalized least squares, and Panel Corrected Standard Errors to ensure the robustness of our findings. We find noteworthy positive correlations between several variables, including heightened ecological consciousness, effective governance structures, increased GDP per capita, and amplified CO2 emissions. These relationships suggest potential pathways to strengthen the financial stability of the entire region; they also highlight the latent potential of embracing ecologically sustainable practices to fortify economic resilience. Our results also underscore the pivotal role of appropriate governance structures and higher income levels in bolstering financial stability in South Asian countries. Interestingly, we also find negative coefficients associated with the use of renewable energy, suggesting that escalating the adoption of renewable energy could create financial instability. This finding stresses the importance of diversification in energy strategies, cautioning policymakers to carefully consider the financial ramifications of potentially costly imports of renewable energy sources while seeking to reduce carbon emissions, emphasizing the need to strike a balance between ambitious sustainability goals and the pursuit of sustained economic robustness in the region. In considering the implications of these findings, it is crucial to consider each country’s broader socioeconomic context. Our results offer valuable insights for policymakers in developing renewable energy strategies.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that businesses must consider the impact they have on the environment and society while pursuing profit maximization. As a result, there is a growing need to incorporate sustainable frameworks into business decision-making. By focusing on sustainable performance at the firm level, we addressed a significant gap in understanding how environmental and social Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) impact bottom-line performance and the crucial role that effective country governance plays in implementing sustainability at the organization level. In 2015, the United Nations established Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), where firms are encouraged to practice in the strategic operation of their businesses. In addition, country governance can play a significant role in adopting sustainable practices and policies that can impact bottom-line performance. In this study, we examined the relationship between environmental and social Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) practices, country governance, and firms' financial performance from 2017 to 2021. The sample data set consisted of top-listed firms in the finance, manufacturing, and technology industries of 100 companies from 17 countries in developed and developing and emerging economies. We utilized content analysis to account for the qualitative aspects of how firms implement social and environmental SDGs. Ten environmental SDGs and eight social SDGs were incorporated in this study as a means of measuring sustainable development goals' impact on a firm's financial performance. We adopted return on assets (ROA) to measure the firm's financial performance. We adopted government effectiveness and regulatory quality to moderate the relationship between social and environmental sustainability practices and firm performance. The panel regression method was exercised to find out the relationship between environmental and social SDGs' impact on financial performance. In addition, we measured the interaction effect between environmental and social SDGs and country governance on firms' performance. We also deployed two-stage least squares (2SLS) regression estimation to mitigate endogeneity concerns. We found that environmental SDGs had a positive and significant impact on firms' financial performance. The coefficient of social SDGs on firm performance was negative and statistically significant. We observed that the coefficient of interaction terms between environmental SDGs and country governance was positive and statistically significant. Moreover, the coefficient interaction terms between social SDGs and country governance were positive and statistically significant, lessening the negative impact of social SDGs on firm financial performance. Finally, we also performed a robustness test on our analysis based on the firm's average capital and average assets. The findings almost held the same.

Research Question: How does the IPSAS application affect Accountability and government effectiveness in Nigeria? Motivation: Inadequate disclosure of public account information has made a mess of public resources management regarding accountability and government effectiveness, necessitating rational actions for minimising cover-up of unethical practices in government. This study employs Tawiah (2022); Schmidthuber et al. (2022) to tailor IPSAS and governance concepts. It creates unique constructs of voters' turnout rates to measure government effectiveness and buttress Accountability. Idea: This study examines governance status based on public support through the voters' election turnout. It anchors the research variables on the institutional and theoretical framework of IPSAS and public responses to government effectiveness Data: It analyses 1999 to 2020, a 22-year-time series data covering before and after the IPSAS application; obtained from the World Bank Development Indicators data bank and the National Assembly Federal Republic of Nigeria resources. Tools: It uses descriptive, ordinary least square regression, correlation statistical, and econometric analyses. Findings: During IPSAS application period, Accountability improves while government effectiveness declines. Whereas, during GAAP period, Government accountability progresses while Presidential and House of Representatives elections negatively influence the government's effectiveness. Hence, the Voters' turnout dwindled. Contributions: A unique methodology involving voters, political parties, officeholders, foreign direct investors and gross domestic products in studying government financial reporting standards. Combination of two regimes of GAAP and IPSAS to demonstrate deeper analyses of accounting standards and public performance evaluation. Evidences that the hidden economic problems associated with resource misallocation are aggravated during the IPSAS period.

The research examines how Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance influences firm performance in the ASEAN region, focusing on how country regulatory quality and government effectiveness affect this relationship. The study uses a comprehensive dataset and finds that environmental and social performances do not directly impact firm performance significantly. However, governance performance has a notably positive effect on firm performance, highlighting the importance of sound governance practices. The study also identifies that the connections between environmental and social performance and firm performance are notably affected by country regulatory quality and government effectiveness. This suggests that the benefits of environmental and social initiatives on firm performance depend on the regulatory and governance environments in which firms operate. Similarly, the link between governance performance and firm performance is also influenced by these factors. These findings underscore the essential role of supportive regulatory structures and effective government practices in enhancing the positive effects of ESG initiatives on firm performance. Overall, this study enhances our understanding of ESG impacts within the ASEAN context and emphasizes the need to integrate ESG efforts with broader institutional support to achieve optimal firm performance.

This study explores the complex relationships involving ecological footprints, energy use, carbon emissions, governance efficiency, economic prosperity, and financial stability in South Asian nations spanning the period from 2000 to 2022. Employing various methodologies such as cross-sectional dependence tests, co-integration analysis, and first- and second-generation unit-root tests, we use a panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag model, feasible generalized least squares, and Panel Corrected Standard Errors to ensure the robustness of our findings. We find noteworthy positive correlations between several variables, including heightened ecological consciousness, effective governance structures, increased GDP per capita, and amplified CO2 emissions. These relationships suggest potential pathways to strengthen the financial stability of the entire region; they also highlight the latent potential of embracing ecologically sustainable practices to fortify economic resilience. Our results also underscore the pivotal role of appropriate governance structures and higher income levels in bolstering financial stability in South Asian countries. Interestingly, we also find negative coefficients associated with the use of renewable energy, suggesting that escalating the adoption of renewable energy could create financial instability. This finding stresses the importance of diversification in energy strategies, cautioning policymakers to carefully consider the financial ramifications of potentially costly imports of renewable energy sources while seeking to reduce carbon emissions, emphasizing the need to strike a balance between ambitious sustainability goals and the pursuit of sustained economic robustness in the region. In considering the implications of these findings, it is crucial to consider each country's broader socioeconomic context. Our results offer valuable insights for policymakers in developing renewable energy strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ASEAN as a region has a great economic potential, which explains the large interest in terms of investment in the region. The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) cooperation program is also a milestone in increasing foreign investment in ASEAN. This study uses a quantitative approach, with the subject of this research being 10 ASEAN countries in 2015-2021. The dependent variable used in this study is foreign direct investment, and the independent variables are government effectiveness, political stability, trade openness, and the workforce. The data in this study comes from the world bank. The analytical method applied in this study is the panel data regression analysis method. Based on the research results, it can be concluded that trade openness and labor force had a positive and significant impact on foreign direct investment in 10 ASEAN countries in 2015-2021. At the same time, government effectiveness and political stability had a positive but insignificant effect. The results of simultaneous testing show that government effectiveness, political stability, trade openness, and the workforce influenced foreign direct investment in 10 ASEAN countries in 2015-2021. The government can use this study in determining foreign investment policies, especially those related to maintaining a stable investment climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exports are vital for emerging economies because they offer people and firms many more markets for their goods. In both developed and developing countries, exports as a catalyst for economic growth. This study examines the impact of digital transformation on exports to Pakistan. Global market changes are driven in large part by the digital transformation. By transforming digitally businesses and exports can become more competitive, efficient, and innovative. In this study, digital transformation is measured with individuals using the internet, fixed telephone subscriptions, and mobile cellular subscriptions. Time series data will be used for this study from 1990 to 2020. The stationarity of the variables was checked by Phillips Perron (PP) and Augmented Dicky-Fuller (ADF). In this study, all the variables were stationary at the first difference in the unit-root test. This study employed the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model for long and short-term relationships and short-term causalities among the variables. The findings of this research indicate a positive and significant relationship between digital transformation and exports. This study also provides comprehensive policies for policymakers to boost the nation's exports. The government should act right now to develop more digital technologies to boost domestic output and services export needs. Effective digital policies should be established and novel approaches to digital transformation should be implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to study the nexus between government effectiveness and socioeconomic equity, which leads to a sustainable social protection system. We have empirically investigated the nexus through a panel data set of 46 developing countries for a period of 20 years. Developing countries face socio-economic inequity due to ineffective government policies leads to the collapse of the social protection system. We have developed an index of sustainable protection systems using the Keyser Meyer Olkin Methodology used as a sampling adequacy. We found a positive association between government effectiveness and social protection systems in developing countries. However, a weak mechanism may cause the poor implementation of sustainable social protection needs utmost policy maneuvers in those countries. There is a need for capacity building of government institutions to improve their effectiveness. Action should be taken that promotes transparency, accountability, and good governance practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aimed at empirically exploring how the expenditure of public health and the effectiveness of government impacted the productivity of labour in West Africa. Design/Methodology/Approach: This study used data from 1980 to 2022 generated by the World Bank and adopted multiple regression, mediation and correlation analysis. Additionally, the co-integration test of Johansen and the residual-based test using the Engel-Granger approach were used. Findings: Expenditures on the health of the public and the effectiveness of government indicated some positive but insignificant impacts on labour productivity in the short run. At the same time, the expenditure on public health indicated a long-term, significant and adverse impact on labour productivity in Nigeria, Togo, Guinea, Senegal and Mali. Conclusion: The present study explored how expenditure on public health and the effectiveness of the government impacted the productivity of labour in West Africa. Apparently, the level of public health expenditure and government effectiveness are yet to positively impact the productivity of labour. Practical Implications: These results presented the critical role of public health expenditure and government effectiveness in enhancing the productivity of labour. Therefore, the study suggests that the government invest significantly in healthcare services in order to promote and safeguard the health of the people. Contribution to the Literature: This study offers an innovative perspective on labour productivity by highlighting the crucial roles played by governments in public health investment for productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aimed at examining the influence of institutional quality on the banking sector's financial depth in Tanzania for a period between 1991 and 2022. In this paper institutional quality is measured by control of corruption, rule of law, government effectiveness, and regulatory quality. The paper employed secondary data from World Bank Governance development indicators and World Bank financial development indicators. A robust regression model was used to analyse data. The paper found that control of corruption, rule of law and regulatory quality have a positive influence on the banking sector financial depth while only government effectiveness influence negatively the banking sector financial depth. The findings imply that improved control of corruption, appropriately following rule of law can lead to a more transparent and accountable regulatory environment, which in turn fosters greater confidence in the banking sector, and also effective government policies attract fast deepening of financial sector. Eventually, to enhance institutional quality towards deepening banking sector depth in Tanzania, the government should focus on enhancing anti-corruption efforts and promoting transparency and accountability in both the public and private sectors. On the other hand, strategies to enhance inter-agency coordination, streamlining decision-making processes, and improving public service delivery in areas affecting the banking sector should be developed and implemented. Finally, the government should focus on strengthening its legal and regulatory frameworks with emphasis on promoting fair and impartial dispute resolution, protecting property rights, and enforcing contracts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between corruption control, government effectiveness and banking stability in 21 countries during the period of 2003–2019. The study used many estimators to overcome heterogeneity and endogeneity issues as well as diagnostic tests to increase robustness. The unit root test results showed that all variables were stationary. The Pedroni, Kao and Westerlund cointegration test results supported the rejection of the null hypothesis of no cointegration, confirming the long-run effects of corruption control and government effectiveness on banking stability. In addition, FMOLS and DOLS were used to control endogeneity. The dynamic panel data estimator results revealed a significant negative relationship between corruption control, government effectiveness and banking stability in high-income countries. The low-income country results indicated that the opposite scenario was true for most estimations. The middle- and high-income country results were the same for the corruption control, government effectiveness and banking stability nexus but different for government effectiveness and banking stability. The main conclusions of the study were that countries with high corruption control enhance banking stability growth by employing the grease the wheels hypothesis under high levels of government effectiveness and countries with low corruption control impede banking stability growth by applying the sands the wheels hypothesis under low levels of government effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the relationship between sustainable economic growth and foreign direct investment (FDI) in Saudi Arabia from 1980 to 2023. The ARDL approach and VECM technique are employed to analyze the short-run and long-run dynamics. The short-run results show mixed effects. Sustainable economic growth has a positive impact on current and one-period lagged FDI but a negative impact on the two periods lagged. Trade openness and infrastructure negatively affect FDI in the short run. Interestingly, oil rents and real economic growth also have negative short-run impacts on FDI, but these effects become positive with a longer lag. Long-run analysis reveals a negative relationship between trade openness, infrastructure, and oil rents with FDI, suggesting a potential crowding-out effect. Trade openness has a positive long-run impact on most variables, including sustainable growth, FDI, real growth, and CO2 emissions. Oil rents also have a positive long-run impact on these variables. This study finds six bidirectional causal relationships in the short run, primarily between trade openness, infrastructure, oil rents, and FDI. Unidirectional causality runs from oil rents, trade openness, exchange rate, sustainable growth, and real growth to FDI and infrastructure. Additionally, CO2 emissions cause FDI, and trade openness causes sustainable growth. While sustainable economic growth benefits FDI in the long run, short-term policies regarding trade openness and infrastructure require reevaluation. Oil revenue and real economic growth may initially deter FDI, but this reverses in the long term. To attract sustainable FDI, policymakers should focus on long-term economic growth strategies and consider reforms in trade and infrastructure policies. A comprehensive FDI strategy that moves beyond oil dependence and leverages trade openness is crucial to long-term economic diversification.

This study investigates the role of renewable and non-renewable energy sources in exports performance of 18 emerging economies from 2000 to 2020. This is done to better elucidate the potential implications of energy transition on the export performance of emerging economies. The estimated models also control for the influences of per capita income, population, and government effectiveness. The Westerlund cointegration confirms the presence of a significant long-run relationship between the variables under consideration. In this regard, two-step System Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimation demonstrates that non-renewable energy consumption promotes exports in emerging economies and renewable energy use hampers it in the long run. At the same time, increase in per-capita income and population size negatively influence the exports. On the other hand, though insignificant, government effectiveness contributes positively to the export performance. The Kernel Regularized Least Squares (KRLS) estimation also confirms the reliability of these baseline findings. Potential policy suggestions for the export promotion of emerging economies are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The government of any country can play a great role in promoting economic and environmental policy reforms in both normal and crisis periods, but during the crisis period, the role of the government should take the economy into a recovery position. The stock market is the backbone of the financial system that needs the government's attention, especially in the period of financial stress and environmental protection is the responsibility of every economy to live in a healthy environment. Combining this motive, this study analyzed the role of the government towards the stock market and carbon emission by using different approaches, including the wavelet approach, OLS regression, and the Granger causality test. The wavelet approach is useful for analyzing the role of the government at different time intervals by using the time horizon from 1993 to 2021. World governance's six indicators in terms of voice and accountability, control of corruption, rules of law, regulatory quality, political stability, and government effectiveness are used as the proxy for the role of the government. Our findings show that all WGI indicators have a positive relationship with the stock market of Malaysia except voice and accountability while concerning voice and accountability, the role of the government of Malaysia is negative on the stock market. Similarly, our findings also show that the effective government governance mechanism through WGI indicators has a significant positive impact on CO2 emission due to industrialization. Furthermore, findings of the Granger causality test reveal that all the WGI indicators cause to stock market of Malaysia, and political stability has bi-directional causality indicating stock market index is also a factor that caused the political stability within Malaysia. In the Granger causality results of the CO2 and WGI indicators, there is unidirectional causality found between rules of law and regulatory quality with CO2 emission. This study advocated strong implementations for the investors for investment decisions in effective governance countries and implications for the government to remove their weakness by making effective governance related to the economy and as well as the environments within the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the impact of government effectiveness (GE) and technological innovation on economic growth and environmental degradation in Middle East & North Africa countries. The study utilizes panel data from the period of 2002–2020. The findings indicate that there is a significant and positive relationship between innovation (INV) and CO2 emissions (0.0244), while GE has a significant and negative impact on CO2 emissions (−0.5753). In a similar vein, it can be observed that both INV and government efficacy exert a substantial and favorable influence on the process of economic growth (0.0353 and 0.0773). Furthermore, the interaction of INV and GE showed a noteworthy moderating effect on CO2 emissions (−0.1581). Conversely, it exhibited a more pronounced positive influence on economic growth (0.1122). The study highlights that synergizing INV with GE is essential for attaining sustainable economic growth in the studied area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship among Research and Development (R&D) expenditure, government effectiveness, and voice accountability in 15 Latin American countries. R&D expenditure is a crucial driver of innovation and economic growth, and effective governance and voice accountability are essential for promoting transparency and citizen participation in decision-making processes. The study utilizes a panel dataset from 2002 to 2021 and employs computer data analysis to estimate the effects of changes in government effectiveness and voice accountability on R&D expenditure. The findings reveal a positive impact of government effectiveness and voice accountability on R&D expenditure. A 1% increase in government effectiveness is associated with a 0.618% increase in research development expenditure, while a 1% rise in voice accountability corresponds to a 0.625% increase. These results highlight the importance of effective governance and citizen engagement in fostering R&D investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government effectiveness has long been a concern for scholars, organizations, and governments. Ineffectiveness in government operations often results in significant costs, particularly for the consumers of public services. This paper empirically examined South Korean public bureaucrats’ perception of the potential impact of e-government on government effectiveness. The analysis reveals that these bureaucrats believe internal e-government factors, such as ICT tools, IT management, and process innovation, significantly enhance government effectiveness. Furthermore, traditional components like business alignment and coordination are viewed as more critical to e-government success than technologically oriented factors like ICT infrastructure availability and skills. Interestingly, contrary to common belief, the study found no direct impact of political leadership, vision, goals, and business process reengineering (BPR) on e-government effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is becoming increasingly apparent that businesses must consider the impact they have on the environment and society while pursuing profit maximization. As a result, there is a growing need to incorporate sustainable frameworks into business decision-making. By focusing on sustainable performance at the firm level, we addressed a significant gap in understanding how environmental and social Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) impact bottom-line performance and the crucial role that effective country governance plays in implementing sustainability at the organization level. In 2015, the United Nations established Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), where firms are encouraged to practice in the strategic operation of their businesses. In addition, country governance can play a significant role in adopting sustainable practices and policies that can impact bottom-line performance. In this study, we examined the relationship between environmental and social Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) practices, country governance, and firms' financial performance from 2017 to 2021. The sample data set consisted of top-listed firms in the finance, manufacturing, and technology industries of 100 companies from 17 countries in developed and developing and emerging economies. We utilized content analysis to account for the qualitative aspects of how firms implement social and environmental SDGs. Ten environmental SDGs and eight social SDGs were incorporated in this study as a means of measuring sustainable development goals' impact on a firm's financial performance. We adopted return on assets (ROA) to measure the firm's financial performance. We adopted government effectiveness and regulatory quality to moderate the ~relationship between social and environmental sustainability practices and firm performance. The panel regression method was exercised to find out the relationship between environmental and social SDGs' impact on financial performance. In addition, we measured the interaction effect between environmental and social SDGs and country governance on firms' performance. We also deployed two-stage least squares (2SLS) regression estimation to mitigate endogeneity concerns. We found that environmental SDGs had a positive and significant impact on firms' financial performance. The coefficient of social SDGs on firm performance was negative and statistically significant. We observed that the coefficient of interaction terms between environmental SDGs and country governance was positive and statistically significant. Moreover, the coefficient interaction terms between social SDGs and country governance were positive and statistically significant, lessening the negative impact of social SDGs on firm financial performance. Finally, we also performed a robustness test on our analysis based on the firm's average capital and average assets. The findings almost held the same. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study's overarching goal is to learn how different kinds of external governance influence company output in Pakistan. This study covers the years 2009 through 2020 and includes 320 corporations that trade on the Pakistan Stock Exchange. It is important to choose businesses that fit certain criteria so the research may be conducted thoroughly. Rule of law, government efficiency, regulatory quality, control of corruption, voice and accountability are the main aspects in the research. In our opinion, these metrics best capture the relationship between governance quality and financial outcomes for companies, therefore we've chosen to focus on them. When it came time to analyse the data, the researchers turned to STATA, a widely used statistical tool. The primary objective is to study and assess the connections between the aforementioned components. The relationship between the elements has been assessed using return on assets as a performance indicator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation in the biotechnology field is influenced by various economic, social, and industrial factors, emphasizing the incorporation of more R&D investments to attain the required significant innovation outcomes. Therefore, within the context of complexities related to biotech innovation, this study aims to determine the impact of corruption control (COR), patent (PAT), government effectiveness (GE), political stability (PS) and rule of law (RL) on pharmaceutical revenue (REV) in UK. The integration of R&D employees (RNDEMP) and R&D expenditure (RNDEXP) is also observed in influencing the revenue. For this purpose, the required secondary quantitative data was obtained from the websites of related organizations from the period of 2005 to 2020. After the collection of data, "ordinary least square (OLS)" analysis was conducted to determine the association between the constructs of the study. The results obtained from this study showed that COR, PAT, PS, RL, PS and GE insignificantly impact the REV. At the same time, the impact of RNDEMP and RNDEXP was also found to be insignificant within the context of pharmaceutical revenue in UK. This study has also provided important implications to promote biotech innovation, focusing on R&D investments and other related factors in order to increase pharmaceutical revenue. This adds value to the current research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of African Journal of Reproductive Health is the property of Women's Health & Action Research Centre and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article assesses the role of good governance in promoting the quality of road networks in the European Union. For this purpose, we consider four dimensions related to good governance: effectiveness of government, quality of legislation, control of corruption, and political stability. Our research aims to test the hypothesis that the different indicators of the governing act have differing impacts on the quality of road infrastructures, the objective of our analysis being to quantify the contribution of each of the above-mentioned indicators. Through a quantitative analysis which used coefficients of correlation and determination, we quantified the explanatory contribution of good governance indicators to the configuration of the quality of road infrastructure in the states of the Union from 2007 to 2019. Our findings show that political stability has the most consistent explanatory contribution, followed by government effectiveness, legislative quality, and corruption control, although the distribution of impact varies significantly across EU member states.

The Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) constitute an extensive dataset that measures the quality of public governance at the national level. The WGI framework is structured around six key governance dimensions: voice and accountability, political stability and absence of violence, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and control of corruption. The WGI is an invaluable tool for policymakers, researchers, and practitioners interested in comparative governance and institutional analysis.The dataset spans from 2011 to 2022 and covers diverse geographical regions such as East Asia & Pacific, Europe & Central Asia, Latin America & Caribbean, Middle East & North Africa, North America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Western Europe, and South Asia. The data is collected systematically, including data source identification, extraction, filtering, validation, and organization. The data is presented in a balanced panel structure to facilitate longitudinal analysis, allowing researchers to explore the dynamics of change within units over time in a standardized manner.Policymakers use these indicators to make informed decisions and plan better. International development organizations employ them to allocate resources and assess the impact of aid. Financial institutions and businesses leverage WGI to evaluate investment risks and market entry conditions. Scholars and researchers find WGI valuable for empirical studies involving cross-country comparisons and longitudinal analyses. Civil society organizations use these metrics to advocate for governance reforms. Furthermore, the indicators are also useful in public discourse for promoting transparency and accountability.

Environmental sustainability concerns are growing worldwide. Reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is crucial to combating global warming and reaching sustainable global economic development. Many recent studies have focused on key indicators of CO2 emissions, but less consideration has been given to associated factors such as renewable energy and human capital. This article applies the two-step system FOD-GMM (Forward-Orthogonal Deviations-Generalized Method of Moments) to estimate the role of renewable energy and human capital in reducing environmental degradation in Europe and Central Asia. The results reveal that renewable energy consumption and human capital have a significant negative impact on CO2 emissions in the EU and Central Asian countries, government efficiency has a positive effect on CO2 emissions, and economic development has a neutral effect, confirming the strong role of renewable energy and human capital in reducing CO2 emissions in EU and Central Asian countries. The role of human capital and renewable energy in promoting CO2 reduction should be fully utilized. Policymakers should develop infrastructure for renewable energy and education to support the decrease in CO2 emissions in Europe and Central Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies have shown a possible link between women achieving some degree of economic independence through empowerment and a decline in gender-based violence (GBV). However, inadequate funding has been a major challenge in developing economies, while foreign aid has been seen as an alternative funding source. Foreign aid for promoting women's rights and gender equality is improving in African countries. Yet, according to official statistics, the frequency of GBV in Africa is among the highest in the world. Given this, this paper examines the impact of women's aid and institutional quality on factors that can reduce GBV using both cross-sectional autoregressive lags to investigate short- and long-run implications and the Panel Vector Correction Model to examine the shock effect of aid on other variables. Also, the mediating role of institutional quality and women's aid are considered. The metrics used for the factors that reduce GBV are female children out of school, the secondary school gender parity index, the genital mutilation prevalence rate, and the metrics for institutional quality are the rules of law and government effectiveness. The implications from the findings show that enhancing the legal structure is very important in Africa, given the low coefficient values to reduce discrimination against the right to education; more should be done to increase the enrolment of female students through the maximisation of women's aid in order to achieve the short- and long-term objectives of reducing gender violence. The findings also show that the rule of law significantly aids in the reduction of female genital mutilation in the short and long run; government effectiveness is insignificant. Also, they show that women's aid also reduces female genital mutilation, albeit at a low rate. The results of this study call for strong enhanced government support and funding to end the practice of female genital mutilation and discrimination against female education in the short and long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The overall development and sustained growth of any economy depend heavily on its infrastructure provisioning. Emerging economies are usually characterised by constrained public investments in infrastructure. Budgetary constraints of the governments are one of the major hurdles to these investments. Due to these reasons that governments of emerging economies continuously seek collaborations with the private sector for additional sources of funding infrastructure. Economies with solid institutional and governance frameworks are known to provide a conducive environment for enhanced private sector attraction in the sector. However, emerging economies face greater institutional and governance issues than developed economies, and they sometimes fall short of luring private investments in the infrastructure sector. The objective of this study is to empirically evaluate the role of institutional and governance aspects in private sector attraction in emerging economies. This study provides empirical evidence with a sample of 114 emerging economies over a period of 20 years. Various econometric estimates were developed to explore the interplay between public‐private partnership investments and governance factors. The results of the study provide an evidence of a positive association between these factors and private investments in public‐private partnership arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of African Journal of Reproductive Health is the property of Women's Health & Action Research Centre and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Sub-Saharan Africa region is disproportionately affected by energy poverty and is considered highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Therefore, addressing the pressing challenges of energy poverty and promoting environmental sustainability in this region is of paramount importance. Consequently, this study appraises the relationship between energy poverty and ecological preservation in Sub-Saharan Africa from 2005 to 2020, using government effectiveness and regulatory quality as moderating variables. A combination of energy poverty indicators and an index of energy poverty computed via the principal component analysis method were applied to identify the link between energy poverty and ecological sustainability. The instrumental variable generalized method of moment technique was applied to address the likelihood of endogeneity issues, and the Driscoll-Kraay approach was employed to check the consistency of the instrumental variable generalized method of moment method. Key findings indicate that energy poverty expands the ecological footprint in Sub-Saharan Africa, leading to ecological deterioration, while the interaction with government effectiveness and regulatory quality further deteriorates the environment. Subsequently, the study provides several recommendations to mitigate the influence of energy poverty on the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous studies have suggested that socio-economic structural factors offer the main reasons for international variations in homicide levels—where socio-economic conditions are better, lower levels of homicide are observed. In countries in Latin America, social and economic conditions have improved, yet high levels of homicide have remained. In this article, we examine a new line of reasoning, hypothesizing that the effectiveness of institutions (such as government justice agencies and the police) and poor controls for corruption are key factors for explaining the high levels of homicide in Latin America. We apply a random effects panel regression using a sample of 54 countries from Latin America and other parts of the world, and data for a 13-year period (2005–2017). We examine the relationships between homicide, government effectiveness, corruption and several structural variables to determine if the relationships between these variables are more apparent for countries in the Latin American region. We find that structural factors play less of a role in explaining the international variation in homicide levels, and that government effectiveness and corruption are significantly related to the high levels of homicide experienced in the Latin America region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individual human health is the basic foundation of a strong community. Such aspect can be directly correlated with issues on the management of sanitation services, mortality, undernourishment and government effectiveness. This study explored the significant impact of sanitation services management to mortality among children under five years old, prevalence of undernourishment, and government effectiveness worldwide. Web-based numeric data and information from 120 countries have been downloaded, summarized, and analyzed using multivariate clustering and correlation analysis. The findings of this study showed that safely managed sanitation services and the prevalence of undernourishment were found to have a negative correlation. It signifies that as sanitation services are enhanced, the prevalence of undernourishment decreases. Meanwhile, safely managed sanitation services and mortality rates are negatively correlated, which means that as the former improves, the mortality rate drops. In addition, the relationship between safely managed sanitation services and government effectiveness is found to have a strong positive correlation, indicating that safely managed sanitation services depend on effective governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of the current global crisis induced by the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic brings about an urgent need to rethink and reshape recovery strategies adapted to this specific challenging context. Neglecting this reconfiguration could lead to system lockdown, affecting all sectors, both on medium and long term. The coronavirus has penetrated various countries with different degrees of intensity, thus being spatially diversified; even within the same country, with the same lockdown measures, an enormous variety in cases is encountered. Subsequently, even if crises may manifest heterogeneously and the long-term impact of implementing recovery policies cannot be accurately known ex ante by governments, institutions could adapt themselves to changing circumstances and respond promptly and appropriately to emerging shocks only if their functioning framework had been well set up by the outbreak of the crisis. Considering these aspects, the main questions that this paper aims to answer are: How effective have governmental measures in European countries been in combating the COVID-19 crisis?; Could the solutions offered by the European states' governments have an influence on diminishing the intensity of negative effects of a possible more serious return of this health crisis? What more could national authorities and international actors do to control the epidemiological evolution of SARS-CoV-2? Is a generic European Union policy helpful or should there be a case for local policy? Based on these issues, a comprehensive picture of the differences between the East and the West of Europe in terms of some medical, socio-economic, institutional and cultural factors will be outlined, in order to emphasize which of the two groups better-handled the COVID-19 situation in the first wave, covering the lockdown period (March 1, 2020 – June 1, 2020) and the relaxation period (June 1, 2020 – September 1, 2020); at the same time, some policy recommendations on how governments should more effectively manage future similar crises to generate a higher resilience of the systems will be provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In general, sustainable economic growth is highly dependent on technological progress, managerial knowledge, and money supply in the economy. Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused structural shocks to economic systems by increasing high economic uncertainty. For this reason, policymakers are exploring alternative measures to stimulate economic growth. And among these alternative measures we also find foreign direct investment, which represents an instrument widely used worldwide. There is a trend among foreign investors that they increasingly focus on the quality of institutions, especially on FDI policies in domestic countries. For this reason, governments of developing countries are increasingly adopting soft policies to attract FDI. Generally, the policies provide substantial taxation provisions. Thus, by stimulating foreign direct investment in global economic operations, short- and long-term growth is achieved. The beneficial effects of FDI are given by their unprecedented impact on achieving sustainability worldwide. The motivation of this study is to scale the effects of environmental quality and good governance on FDI inflows in European Union member countries for the period 2002-2021. We used the estimation of autoregressive distributed lag and error correction models to investigate the association and elasticity of explanatory variables on FDI inflows in EU member countries. Thus, as independent variables we use CO2 emissions from solid fuel consumption and the sum of exports and imports of goods and services. Environmental degradation comes from the depletion of resources by human activity, and ultimately this leads to increased costs and depletion of capital. As a result, environmental quality is crucial to the health of both people and businesses. In the recent economic booms, international trade needs serious attention to form new policies to invite more foreign investors. And as control variables we introduce Government effectiveness index and Gross capital formation. We introduce these variables because it is believed that weak institutional capacity can have a negative impact on economies. The study results suggest that government efficiency and a less regulated environmentally concerned economy drive capital transfer decisions.

This paper examines the interaction between health expenditure and health outcomes with due consideration for government effectiveness across developing African economies. The rich data for this study draw from forty-five Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries covering the period 1960 to 2022. The analysis follows a country-specific comparative manner using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model as the major estimation technique. The results indicate that poor health outcomes are not due to inadequate budgetary allocations alone. Specifically, this study found a cointegrating relationship and strong adjustment of health outcomes deriving from the shocks and dynamics of not just health expenditures, but also government effectiveness. It is therefore recommended that strong institutions and safety nets be created to guard against corruption and leakages that derail the beneficial impact of public health spending. Also, government expenditures should be focused more on cottage and primary health dimensions to better mitigate adverse health conditions in SSA countries.

Our study investigated the impact of institutional quality on health system outcomes, utilizing worldwide governance indicators and analyzing data from 158 countries between 2001 and 2020. We employed Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to create a composite index of institutional quality and conducted various tests to select the appropriate econometric model. The role of institutional quality, along with other variables, in health outcomes was estimated using fixed effects and generalized method of moments (GMM) models. High-income and low-income countries were analyzed separately. The results of our study revealed that institutional quality, as measured by Control of Corruption, Voice and Accountability, Political Stability, Rule of Law, Regulatory Quality, and Government Effectiveness, had a negative impact on infant mortality rates and a positive impact on life expectancy. Similarly, variables such as GDP, mean years of schooling, total health expenditure, and urbanization rate showed a negative association with infant mortality rates and a positive association with life expectancy. Conversely, the logarithm of CO2 emissions exhibited a positive effect on infant mortality rates and a negative effect on life expectancy. These findings highlight the crucial role of institutional quality in determining health outcomes. Improving institutional quality contributes to the development of democratic and meritocratic systems, infrastructure enhancement, efficient tax and subsidy systems, optimal budget allocation, improved public education, and enhanced access to primary healthcare services. The influence of institutional quality is particularly significant in high-income countries compared to low-income countries. In conclusion, our study emphasizes the importance of institutional quality in shaping health system outcomes. Enhancing institutional quality is essential for the overall advancement of healthcare systems, encompassing governance, infrastructure, education, and access to healthcare services. It is crucial to prioritize efforts to improve institutional quality, especially in high-income countries, to achieve better health outcomes for populations worldwide.