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This study utilizes cross-country data from 2002 to 2019 from 60 selected developing countries to explore the impact of competition and financial inclusion on financial stability. Employing the system GMM estimator, compelling evidence is revealed, highlighting a number of key findings. Firstly, it is observed that financial inclusion has a weakening effect on financial stability within developing countries. Conversely, competition among these nations demonstrates a significant capacity to bolster financial stability. Additionally, the study underscores the pivotal role of financial development, identifying it as a primary driver that enables financial inclusion to positively influence financial stability within developing nations. Furthermore, the introduction of the square term of financial inclusion yields noteworthy insights, revealing a nonlinear relationship. Specifically, the findings suggest that strategic investments in the financial inclusion of developing countries have the potential to enhance financial stability up to a certain threshold. Therefore, for emerging economies seeking to fortify their financial stability, prioritizing efforts to augment financial inclusion is imperative. Over the long term, such endeavors have the potential to yield tangible improvements in financial stability.In conclusion, the research offers valuable policy implications. These include recommendations aimed at fostering greater financial inclusion within developing economies as a means of bolstering overall financial stability. By heeding these suggestions and implementing targeted policies, policymakers can work towards cultivating a more resilient and robust financial landscape within their respective nations.

Carbon emissions from anthropogenic human activities are viewed as the major cause of pollution in the environment. The Paris Treaty came into effect to help minimize the galloping rate of global ecological pollution. The surge in global emissions has prompted other nations to change their environmental regulations to help them to attain their emission mitigation agenda. For instance, China, United States and India have improved their Nationally Determined Contributions they pledged as signatories to the Paris Accord to help them to achieve their sustainable development goals But, despite nations committing to the guidelines of this accord, ecological contamination continues to rise in the globe. To help curb the above menace, a study on the connection between financial development, urbanization, economic growth, renewable energy consumption, and environmental quality of 27 countries from North, South and East Africa over the period 1990 to 2019 was conducted. In attaining this goal, econometric techniques that are robust to heterogeneity and residual cross-sectional dependence were deemed appropriate. From the preliminary analysis, the panel was heterogeneous and cross-sectionally dependent. Also, all the series were stationary after first difference and cointegrated in the long-run. On the regression estimates via the common correlated effects mean group technique, financial development improved environmental quality in the North, South and Eastern regions by 0.56%, 0.42%, and 0.44% respectively. Also, renewable energy promoted ecological safety in the Northern and Eastern regions by 0.24% and 0.08% respectively, but degraded environmental sustainability in the Southern region by 0.66%. Besides, economic growth deteriorated the environment in the North by 0.66%, South by 0.41%, and East by 0.25%. However, urbanization enhanced ecological safety in the East by 0.63%, but had immaterial effect on environmental quality in the North and Southern regions of Africa. Some of the aforestated results are consistent to those under the dynamic common correlated effects mean group (DCCEMG) technique as an alternative estimator. Policy recommendations to help advance the carbon-neutrality target of the regions were proposed.

AbstractThis study investigates the effects of digital finance technology, i.e., mobile phones and internet usage on financial stability of the banking sector in developing market economies. We used data from 2000 to 2020 from 55 selected developing economies to examine the link between digital finance technology and financial stability. According to the empirical results from the quantile regression, mobile phone subscriptions as a proxy for digital finance technology has a negative impact on the financial stability of the chosen emerging economies. In contrast, the findings indicate that internet usage as a proxy for digital finance technology has a favorable impact on the financial stability (FS) of developing economies. Given that digital finance technology has a variety of implications on the financial stability of emerging countries, the study advises policymakers to assess current digital finance technology (internet usage and mobile phone subscription) and banking-related regulations and align them with various aspects of financial stability.

Total quality management (TQM) has become a reliable quality and customer satisfaction approach that can meet or exceed customer satisfaction. Previous studies have not really tied total quality management in the aspects of SERVQUAL as the major influence on customer satisfaction in the Ghanaian telecommunication sector, thus the need for this research. As customer satisfaction continues to rise, telecommunication customers expect service quality to improve to meet their satisfaction. The quality of service determines the customer satisfaction level in a service industry, such as telecom. Effective total quality management would result in better service quality. SERVQUAL is arguably the model to assess the effectiveness of customer satisfaction in the service industry. The aim of this study is to assess the influence of total quality management on customer satisfaction in the telecom industry from a TQM–SERVQUAL perspective. The study relied on questionnaires to gather data about the TQM services on customer satisfaction. A self-completion questionnaire was administered to customers and employees of MTN Ghana and Vodafone Ghana. Both companies operate with the same procedures and equipment, hence the need to use the same apparatus for all contacted customers and employees. There were 800 respondents from both companies’ employees and customers, although 850 questionnaires were administered. Descriptive statistical analysis was used through the questionnaire. The investigators also ran preliminary tests such as reliability, validity, and multicollinearity tests to ascertain if the received data were reasonable enough for the research and would fit the expected model. The data collected were analyzed and the inference was drawn in the study. The key finding states that total quality management had a significant impact on service quality and customer satisfaction. It is also concluded that service quality has a positive influence on customer satisfaction. Moreover, service quality has been detected as a major variable of TQM in achieving customer satisfaction in telecommunication companies in Ghana.

The study considered the relationship between the interaction of financial development with all six distinct governance indicators from the world development indicators, as well as a combination of them, and inclusive growth in 48 African economies from 2000 to 2019. The countries were classified into low-income countries and middle-income countries. The models were then estimated with Panel Quantile Regression with Fixed Effects estimations, and Dumitrescu & Hurlin causality tests after going through robust econometric tests. From the outcome, the interaction of financial development with corruption control is essential for inclusive growth in only middle-income countries. The interaction of financial development with political stability and the absence of violence/terrorism, and the interaction of financial development and governance in general are relevant to inclusive growth in Africa as a whole and middle-income countries. However, the interaction of financial development with voice and accountability, and the interaction of financial development with rule of law are relevant to inclusive growth in all country groupings. JEL: G20; F62; R50

The development of the regional economy is of major concern against the backdrop of the “new normal.” As a problem that has persisted in China for decades, zombie firms have a negative impact on regional and industrial sustainable development. This study first presents a novel method for identifying zombie firms and then analyzes the characteristics of zombie firms in the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomerations during a specified period. A fixed-effect model is used to examine the impact of firm zombification on normal enterprise investment. Despite the low level of zombification of industrial enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration, the results of the study indicate that it has a considerable negative influence on enterprise investment. After applying multiple methods for robustness testing and constructing instrumental variables to solve the endogeneity problem, our results have remained stable. The carbon intensity effect and the competitive weakening effect are also examined as two impact mechanisms. Our findings have significant theoretical and practical ramifications: 1) It introduces a novel concept for defining zombie firms, which will aid in the improvement of the technique of identifying zombie firms based on the Chinese Industrial Enterprise Database; 2) It proposes a novel approach to zombie firm research, and it is critical to better understand the harmful effects of zombie firms on industrial sustainable development and to make specific efforts to address them; 3) It makes recommendations to the government on how to establish industrial policy. The policy tilt towards state-owned enterprises should be adjusted, while regional economic characteristics should be fully considered to ensure the sustainable development of the industry and the region.

This study investigated the link between energy consumption (EC), foreign direct investments (FDI), urbanization (URB) and CO 2 emissions in the emerging seven (E7) countries for the period 1991 to 2014. The exploration made a methodological contribution by employing modern econometric methods that are robust to the issues of cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity, so as to obtain valid and reliable outcomes. From the results, the panel under consideration was heterogeneous and cross-sectionally correlated. Also, the series were first differenced stationary and cointegrated in the long-run. The DCCEMG and the DCCEPMG estimators were engaged to explore the long-run elastic effects of the covariates on the response variable, and from the results, EC and URB were key promoters of CO 2 effusions in the countries. However, FDI mitigated the emanation of CO 2 in the nations. Additionally, economic growth (GDP) and population growth (POP) escalated the emittance of CO 2 in the E7. On the D-H causality test outcomes, a feedback causality amid POP and CO 2 effusions; GDP and CO 2 excretions; FDI and CO 2 emissivities; and between URB and CO 2 secretions were discovered. Finally, a one-way causation from URB to the effluents of CO 2 was unfolded. Based on the verdicts, policy suggestions were proposed to help abate the rate of CO 2 exudations in the countries.

We explored the impacts of banking system stability on sustainable development for the period 2000-2016 as well pre and post-global financial crisis periods. We employed econometric frameworks of dynamic fixed effects, system GMM and most recent estimator - panel quantile regression with fixed effects to provide robust results from the conditional mean-based and parameter heterogeneity approaches. Our results revealed that, conditioning on other sustainable development determinants, banking system stability have significant impacts on sustainable development as well as empirical evidence of parameter heterogeneity response of sustainable development for countries conditionally distributed on low and high sustainable development path for both short-run and long-run. In addition, we established that, countries distributed on low sustainable development paths gain more from bank stabilization policies compared to countries on middle and higher sustainable development paths. Finally, we established vanishing adverse effects of banking system stability on sustainable development in the post-global financial crisis period.

The study investigated the effects of banking system stability on economic sustainability from the perspective of 37 developing economies for the period 2000–2016. The study applied panel data models precisely fixed effects and random effects models. Hausman test of endogeneity revealed fixed effects model as the most appropriate in all estimations. Our empirical analysis revealed the following key findings: First, the study revealed that banking system z-scores has positive effect on economic sustainability of developing economies while banking system regulatory capital and bank credit have negative effects on economic sustainability among selected developing economies. Second, while banking system z-scores, bank liquid assets and bank credit have positive effects on economic sustainability of BRICS economies, bank liquid assets and bank credit have negative effects on economic sustainability of non-BRICS economies except banking system zscores, which has a positive effect. In addition, banking system z-scores has positive effect on economic sustainability of Asian and non-Asian economies. However, non-performing loans and bank credit has negative effects on economic sustainability of Asian economies while banking system regulatory capital has negative effect on economic sustainability of non-Asian economies. We conclude that banking system stability play a role in economic sustainability developing economies. However, banking system stability has differing effects on economic sustainability of BRICS and non-BRICS economies; and Asian and non-Asian economies.

To explore the possible environmental and economic influences of FDI and Trade openness in Pakistan and India is the aim of this study. Especially this study investigates whether trade liberalization harm the environment of Pakistan and India or not. We conducted panel ARDL model for both countries as a group. We found that FDI and CO2 has positive relation with each other in empirical section which shows FDI of both countries could harm their environment. In long run trade has negative correlation with environment but in short run it has positive correlation. This study concludes that FDI and trade liberalization can boost the economy by crating job opportunities but they harm the environment in Pakistan and India.

The aim of this research was to establish the nexus between liquidity and the viability of quoted non-financial establishments in Ghana. Panel data deduced from the published annual reports of 15 entities for the period 2008 to 2017 was employed for the study. Preliminarily, cross-sectional reliance, unit root, serial correlation, heteroscedasticity, co-integration, and causality tests were respectively performed. Our findings established that there exists no cross-sectional reliance, and input variables are stationary and co-integrated with no presence of heteroscedasticity and serial correlation. Estimates from the random effects generalized least squares (GLS) regression showed that liquidity has significant adverse effect on the firms’ Return on Equity (ROE) but had insignificantly positive effect on ROE when surrogated by the cash flow ratio. Finally, test based on causalities uncovered that, with the exception of Current Ratio and ROE that are flanked by bidirectional liaison, no other causal affiliation was evidenced amid other variables. Policy recommendations are further discussed.

Because of rapid economic expansion, China, the USA, and India have become the largest energy producers and sources of CO2 emissions in the world. They burned over 45% of global fuels in 2016. Meanwhile, the developing strategies of 24 polluted states to decrease fossil energy consumption without additional economic output. This paper explores the effect of world top polluted countries’ CO2 emission, their GDP and production of electricity by potential indicators and identifies the basic factors that contribute to changes in an environment where petroleum, natural gas, coal, nuclear, biomass, and other renewable energy and hydroelectric sources are examined with GDP per capita. We estimate our data for the period from 1968 to 2017 and use the GLM model. The results show that more production of electricity is causing abnormal CO2 emissions. The Granger causality test shows that there is a unidirectional relationship between energy consumption and economic advancement. Also, there is a short-run bidirectional causality that exists among the energy indicators. We find a unilateral causality between energy consumption and economic growth. Therefore, the consumption of energy might be conductive of 24 (polluted) countries and better economic development; the consumption of energy may be failsafe and guaranteed, while we should limit the resources of countries.

Goal: the objective of the paper is to extend the discussions on corporate governance to the public sector and examine good governance from a Ghanaian institutional context. Design / Methodology / Approach: literature is based on relevant theoretical concepts and seven explanatory variables of corporate governance. Primary data was abstained through structured questionnaires administered to public servants from the Ministries, Departments and Agencies– MDA’s in Accra. Ordinary Least Square multiple regression was employed to analyze a total valid sample of 568. The findings represent the opinions of board of directors, internal auditors, senior management and employees. Results: the empirical result shows that audit committees, leadership, board effectiveness, accountability and directors’ qualification are strong determinants of good governance in public organizations. However, board size has no impact on good governance when board independence is negative. There is evidence that international corporate governance principles are reasonably visible without any significant deviations. Limitations of the investigation: The study is empirically limited with the absence of key variables such as corruption, ethnicity and tribal politics in public organizations in Ghana. These are major factors associated with institutional governance in developing countries. Practical Implications: the study observed a negative relationship between board independence and good governance attributed to lack of board diversity. The study implies that gender balanced boards composed of higher ratio of female directors could enhance decision-making and guarantee board effectiveness. Originality / Value: the study emphasizes that public and private organizations share almost similar governance indicators, considering the model estimation. There is evidence that corporate governance is gaining popularity in the public sector, a discussion that is often limited to the private sector. The study contributes to the limited existing findings on the subject from a Ghanaian institutional context. Finally, the results validate many empirical opinions about the negative relationship between good governance and board size from different institutional environments.

This study analyzes the core energy consumption among countries' specific variables by Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis (EKC), for a panel data of 29 (14 developed and 15 developing) countries during the period of 1977-2014. By assessing Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) regressions with first generation tests such as common root, individual Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF), and individual root-Fisher-PP which have been computed individually, the results confirm the EKC hypothesis in the case of emissions of solid, liquid, gases, manufacturing industries and also construction. Hence, we computed the cointegration test by Pedroni Kao from Engle-Granger based and Fisher. Since the variables are co-integrated, a panel vector error correction model is estimated in GDP per capita, emission from manufacturing industries, arms import, commercial service export, and coal rent, in order to perform Pairwise Granger Causality test and indicate Vector Error Correction (VEC), with co-integration restrictions. Moreover, the statistical finding from VEC short-run unidirectional causality from GDP per capita growth to manufacturing industries and coal rent, as well as the causal link with manufacturing industries and commercial service export. Additionally, there occurred no causal link among economic growth, arm import and coal rent.

This study analyzes corporate ownership as a corporate governance mechanism and its role in creating firm value. Previous research shows that there is no convergence on the firm-value corporate ownership relationship. Most research in this area takes a cross national approach ignoring the uniqueness of each institutional setting particularly those of emerging nations. Using a unique firm level dataset, we investigate how corporate control nature and ownership concentration affect the value of Chinese listed firms. First, non-state owned control is associated with a higher Tobin’s Q while a negative premium is found for state owned. Using the hybrid and the correlated random effects model we confirm a U-shaped non-linear relationship between ownership concentration and Tobin’s Q, implying that firm value first decreases and then increases as block holders own more shares. Further investigation reveals that the negative effect of ownership concentration is weaker when a firm equity nature is non-state owned enterprises (non-SOEs) compared to state-owned enterprises (SOEs). While ownership concentration appears to be an efficient mechanism for corporate governance its effect is weaker for SOEs compared to non-SOEs. The results support privatization of SOEs, sound reforms such as the split share structure reform as crucial for the development of China’s stock market.

This study investigates risk management practices in public entities in the Ghana. We relied on the popular framework designed by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission—COSO, to advocate for possible ways to minimize the occurrence and effects of risk in public organizations. The internal control elements used include: control environment, commitment to ethics, segregation of duties, review and information and communication. These constitute the explanatory variables used in performing multivariate data analysis to determine the dimensionality of the data set and possible outcomes. The exploratory research followed a quantitative approach using the survey method and a structured equation model. We established that, due to globalization and increases in the scale of operations, it is practically impossible for management through the help of auditors and those in charge of governance to validate the entire operations of the public sector to ensure strict compliance to internal control principles, in order to minimize the detrimental impacts of risk. However, an alternative sustainability depends on the prominence of quality financial reporting, compliance, commitment to ethical values and consistency in pursuit of the strategic and operational objectives based on good corporate governance. On the other hand, the implications of risks should be embedded in the minds of public servants as part of the organizational culture that will complement existing tools and techniques of internal control.