Does financial sector development mitigate power sector-based carbon dioxide emissions to establish environmental sustainability in BRICS?

Innovation dynamics in the natural resource curse hypothesis: A new perspective from BRICS countries

Contrary to predominant neoliberal ideology that argued higher economic growth rates would eventually lead to better results in terms of income distribution, the last three decades witnessed high economic growth rates accompanied by rising income inequalities in most countries worldwide. Abundance of natural resources in several developing countries had significant implications for their economic growth and subsequent income inequality levels. Further, neoliberal globalization manifested itself in increased foreign direct investment and trade openness impacted world economies significantly. This research examines the effects of natural resource dependency, neoliberal globalization, and state-institutional factors alongside the internal development model on income inequality in a set of 96 developing countries for the period 1980–2010. Models for Prais–Winsten regressions with panel corrected standard errors show that within the internal development model, population growth rates are the most significant factor in influencing income inequality levels. Natural resource dependency is equally important and is positively associated with increasing inequalities. More detailed analyses of different types of energy-rich countries reveal varying results exemplifying the importance of exploring how different types of natural resources might affect income inequality levels rather than their sheer magnitude. Consistent with previous research, foreign direct investment indicates a robust positive association with increasing income inequalities whereas trade openness exhibits a negative association signifying the positive effect deindustrialization that took place in advanced countries might have had on developing countries. Finally and counterintuitively, democracy is associated with higher income inequalities whereas institutional quality is negatively associated with income inequality.

This study examines the impact of geopolitical risks (GPR) on renewable energy adoption in the Asia-Pacific region, focusing on how adverse geopolitical events influence the transition to renewable energy. Using panel regression models, including fixed effects, random effects, and Generalized Least Squares (GLS), the study analyzes data from a group of Asia-Pacific countries between 2000 and 2021. The findings reveal a positive impact of geopolitical risks on renewable energy consumption, with political instability and international conflicts encouraging countries to shift towards renewable energy sources to enhance energy security and reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels. Additionally, macroeconomic factors such as financial sector development, inflation, government expenditure, trade, and CO2 emissions also significantly affect renewable energy adoption. The study concludes that geopolitical risks, while posing challenges, offer opportunities for promoting renewable energy, and suggests that policymakers should focus on strategies to mitigate these risks, incentivize renewable energy investments, promote green finance, and foster technological innovation to reduce fossil fuel reliance. The research emphasizes the need for international cooperation and robust financial systems to support energy transitions in the context of geopolitical instability.

The development of financial sectors in many countries has been recognized as a key factor in their economic growth over recent decades. However, this has not been enough to motivate authorities to advance financial development, which remains uneven across countries. While the advantages of better financial development are clear, understanding the factors behind success remains a challenge. This paper focuses on this issue, aiming to examine financial development through the lens of political economy and summarize findings from related studies within this framework. It shows that research on the “finance-growth nexus” can be interpreted politically, revealing, for example, the non-linearity of the relationship and the varying sensitivity of economic growth to financial depth indicators across countries. The analysis also highlights how special interest groups hinder the development of certain financial market sectors, particularly financial inclusion. In Russia, this situation is evident in the collective investment market, where financial services remain insufficiently accessible, and market depth lags behind other BRICS countries. The study suggests that financial access can be improved through technological development and deeper international integration, though challenges remain, including digital inequality and the construction of opaque financial contracts. Additionally, countries with different levels of financial development may not equally benefit from globalization, posing further constraints. These issues offer promising avenues for future research.

The study examined the determinants of financial sector development in Nigeria in an error correction modelling framework, and with OLS for robustness checks, using data from 1980 to 2017. The results show that, banking sector reform, gross capital formation, government expenditure, interest rate spread, output size and trade openness were significant determinants of financial sector development in both the short- and long run. Proxy for economic misery was only significant in the ECM equation, while literacy and human development metric was significant in the long-run equation. Natural resource dependence, proxy by ratio of natural resource rent to GDP, was negatively related to financial sector development in Nigeria, though the coefficient was not significant at conventional levels. Economic misery, interest rate spread and inflation were observed to undermine financial development in Nigeria. The study recommends the continuation of the process of financial liberalization because of its immerse benefits of promoting competition amongst financial institutions with attendant positive effects of reducing interest rate gap. Domestic output, measured by the real GDP, should be enhanced with appropriate stabilising policy, whether fiscal or monetary policy. Additionally, efforts should be enhanced to limit the effects of macroeconomic instability on financial sector development. Lastly, the study recommends efficient management of natural resources to enjoy a non-declining contribution to the development of an inclusive financial system in Nigeria.

The development of an economy’s financial sector facilitates improved access to capital. This study focuses on firm growth in terms of how much assets it controls and BRICS is chosen as the empirical medium of investigation. The impact financial sector development on firm growth amongst 3353 listed firms in BRICS countries is investigated using a GMM estimation technique. Firm’s investment in assets increases the organizational resources and productive capacity needed to achieve growth in the market. Financial sector development improves access to capital and firms with higher access to external finance pursue growth opportunities using debt. Financial sector development helps firms to adjust their capital structures quickly thereby minimizing the costs of staying off target. The speed of adjustment of firms towards their target capital structure facilitates financing of firm growth. The study found that listed firms in Brazil, Russia India, China and South Africa have a target total liabilities-to-total assets ratio and financial sector development helps firms to partially adjust towards target levels and pursue growth opportunities.

Africa began implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 emphasizing on sustainable management and effective use of natural capital to spur economic growth (Goals 12, 14, and 15). This study using World Bank data sets from 46 African countries selected for the years 2000 to 2022, examined the nexus between natural resource endowments and economic growth in Africa. We used the system generalized method of moments (sys-GMM) and dynamic panel threshold regression (DPTR) to analyze the data. The findings of the two-step sys-GMM estimation using 'xtabond2' revealed that when the institutional quality variable is added and excluded from the model, natural resource dependence negatively impacts economic growth, but the impact is greater when the institution is excluded. In the estimation of the interaction variable of natural resource dependence and institutional variable included in the model, natural resource dependence positively impacts economic growth. The results of the DPTR using "xthenreg" showed that when the threshold value of natural resource dependence is ≤ 1.73% of gross domestic product, natural resource dependence has a positive impact on economic growth and a negative impact when the threshold value is above 1.73%. Similarly, when the institutional quality threshold is ≤ 0.277, natural resources dependence impacts economic growth negatively; above the threshold (0.277), the impact is positive. In conclusion, natural resource endowment is a curse with no or low-quality institutions and a blessing with high-quality institutions. Thus, building strong institutions and proper utilization of natural resources helps to minimize the adverse impact of resource endowments on economic growth.

The BRICS countries are important contributors to global efforts aimed at preventing a climate catastrophe. These countries account for half of the total emissions generated by the G20 nations. In this context, this paper examines the relationship between total factor productivity (TFP) and CO2 emissions (CE) in BRICS countries from 1996 to 2022, with institutional quality serving as a moderating factor. Moreover, a diverse range of methodologies was employed to address the problem of cross-sectional dependence; i.e., the CS-ARDL technique is used to analyze the relationship between variables in both the long and short-run. The AMG and CCEMG methods are employed for robustness analysis, while the Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality test is used to assess causality. Our empirical analysis demonstrates that TFP is positively associated with CE. Conversely, we find that institutional quality has a negative impact on CE. Furthermore, the study confirms that the interaction between TFP and institutional quality has a negative effect on CE. This implies that an improvement in institutional quality leads to a decrease in CE, as it strengthens the regulatory system governing CE and reduces pollution. Environmental policy must include economic flexibility and policy unpredictability in order to meet CO2 reduction targets. In addition, the study has identified bidirectional causal links between CE and variables such as TFP, institutional quality, and other control variables. According to our study, the BRICS countries should encourage digitalization and renewable energy production while preserving a reasonable standard of institutional quality since they have significant resource advantages in the renewable energy sector.

Embracing energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy (RE) is essential for improving environmental quality. This research investigates the asymmetric impacts of EE, RE, and other factors on CO2 emissions in BRICS (i.e., Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) countries from 1990 to 2014. In contrast to previous studies, the present study considers EE as a major cause of CO2 emissions in BRICS countries. By using the new hidden panel cointegration and nonlinear panel autoregressive distributive lag model, this study is the first of its kind that unfolds the asymmetric links among EE, RE, and CO2 emissions. Findings clearly explain that the impact of the selected variables on CO2 emissions is asymmetric, and both EE and RE help to lower CO2 emissions in BRICS countries. In the long run, positive shocks in EE and RE can significantly mitigate CO2 emissions in BRICS economies. In particular, a 1% fluctuation in the positive sum of EE reduces CO2 emissions by 0.783% in the long run. On the other hand, a 1% fluctuation in the positive component of RE reduces CO2 emissions by 0.733%. Moreover, individual country estimates suggest the heterogeneous effects among BRICS countries. Based on the empirical findings, policymakers should consider the asymmetric behavior of the EE, RE, and economic growth while formulating, energy, environment, and growth policies of BRICS countries. Graphical abstract.

Carbon dioxide emissions are on the rise, posing a serious global issue. Therefore, it is important that policymakers identify the exact causes of these emissions. This paper investigates the influence of financial development, primary energy consumption, and economic growth on CO2 emissions in 11 post-transition European economies. The assessment was made for the 1995–2017 period using panel cointegration and causality analyses. The causality analyses did not reveal significant connection between financial sector development and CO2 emissions, but rather a two-way causality between primary energy consumption and economic growth, on one hand, and CO2 emissions on the other. Meanwhile, long-run analysis disclosed that financial sector development and primary energy consumption positively affected CO2 emissions. Our results seek to grab the attention of policy makers, who could work towards creating country-specific strategies that balance the relationship between financial development and CO2 emissions. These long-term policies could ensure both development of the financial sector and environmental protection.

Natural resources volatility, renewable energy, R&D resources and environment: Evidence from selected developed countries

Endorsing sustainable development in BRICS: The role of technological innovation, renewable energy consumption, and natural resources in limiting carbon emission

Natural resource dependence and institutional quality: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

This study investigates the cause-effect relationship between financial sector development and economic growth; in Nigeria through supply-led growth and demand-led growth models. Annualized time-series data extracted from the Central Bank of Nigeria Bulletin from 1999 to 2017 were used in the investigation. The supply-led growth model assumes that financial sector development granger causes economic growth. The demand-led growth model assumes that economic growth Granger causes financial sector growth. Estimating the cause-effect relationship the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL), and Pairwise Granger Causality was adopted. Findings revealed that the causal relationship is influenced by the stages and level of economic and financial sector growth through the appropriate policy mixes, of the regulators and monetary authorities. The Error Correction Model (ECM) adjusts for disequilibrium caused by the financial and economic factors of lack of economic value, chain effect of export goods, saving-investment gap, and decrease in capital productivity, back to equilibrium at 37% annually. Both the supply-led growth and demand-led growth models hold in Nigeria. The findings differ from previous studies in Nigeria and report that the causality between finance and economic growth is based on stages and the level of economic and financial sector growth and development. The study also supports the argument of Patrick (1966).

This study examines the influence of financial development, financial technology and institutional quality on climate change in middle-income economies from 2000 to 2023. The study aims to identify the role of these factors in driving or mitigating CO2 emissions and provide policy recommendations for sustainable economic development. This study employs the method of moment quantile regression (MMQR) approach to unpack the linkage between financial development, financial technology, and institutional quality and CO2 emission across various quantiles. This approach enables a thorough evaluation of the impact of these factors on climate change across different quantiles. The outcomes illustrate the rise in CO2 emission because of financial development, urbanization and economic advancement across all quantiles. The impact of financial technology displayed mixed trends across all quantiles, minimizing emissions at a lower quantile but lowering the effect at higher quantiles Conversely, the institutional quality diminishes CO2 emission at all quantiles, denoting the role of governance in middle-income economies. These outcomes urge policymakers to approve extensive strategies that restrict the negative impacts of financial development, urbanization and economic growth while promoting institutional quality in all middle-income economies. This study is novel in exploring the drivers associated with climate change while concentrating on the financial sector and institutional quality. Besides, it also offers actionable, innovative policy recommendations to address contemporary environmental and economic challenges in middle-income economies.