This study examines the asymmetric environmental effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) and income growth in Bulgaria, linking the analysis to broader globalization debates on the ecological consequences of cross-border capital flows. Using quarterly data from 2014Q1 to 2024Q2 and a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model, we assess how sector-specific FDI in manufacturing and construction affects per capita CO 2 emissions. By decomposing FDI and GDP per capita into positive and negative shocks, we test whether globalization-driven inflows and income expansions support low-carbon development. The results indicate a long-run “pollution halo” effect, with rising FDI and income reducing emissions, while contractions in income elevate them. In contrast, short-run dynamics point to temporary “pollution haven” patterns. These findings underscore the dual role of globalization: cross-border investment can initially intensify environmental pressures but, under robust regulatory frameworks, fosters technological upgrading and green transitions. The study contributes to globalization research by offering asymmetric, sector-specific evidence from an emerging industrial EU economy with a peripheral role in global value chains.

Higher education attainment, multinational corporations, and environmental sustainability: Isolating the carbon footprint in the European Union and the UK

Globalization-led growth in the post-soviet CIS region: findings from advanced panel cointegration methods

Artificial neural networks and inclusive growth: A customized measurement approach and empirical analysis for the MENA region

Telecoupled landscapes: Spatial effects of external financial inflows on Africa’s biodiversity

Mandates through the rule of law: United Nations missions and foreign direct investment

Monetary policy and foreign direct investment: Global evidence, 1970–2023

Productive use of energy to offset the mutual exclusivity regarding natural resource dependence and sustainable environments

Green accounting provides a framework for incorporating environmental factors into economic analysis, offering perspectives that can influence approaches to managing resources and fostering green FDI. This research utilizes the Panel Vector Autoregressive (PVAR) and dynamic panel threshold models, using data from 149 nations between 2003 and 2022. Findings show that green accounting responded positively to green FDI throughout the period, while in contrast, green accounting negatively influenced green FDI only in the first two years of the period, and the impacts became insignificant. Furthermore, the relationship between green accounting and green FDI is non-linear; the green accounting threshold is 25.7 million tons. When green accounting is below or exceeds the threshold, its impact on green FDI is negative. Consequently, it is critical to rigorously monitor and evaluate green accounting outcomes, as this provides a solid foundation for developing comprehensive and sustainable strategies to attract FDI investment capital in green sectors while balancing long-term environmental and economic sustainability.

The digital economy's expansion is leading multinational enterprises to reshape their global investment strategies, with regional intelligent development becoming a decisive factor in foreign direct investment (FDI) flows. Analyzing panel data from 290 Chinese cities between 2012 and 2022, through a two-way fixed effects model, this study establishes that intelligent development significantly attracts FDI—a finding robust to endogeneity and specification checks. Mechanism tests reveal that intelligent development draws FDI by cultivating digital human capital, enhancing regional innovation, and advancing digital financial inclusion. The impact exhibits notable heterogeneity: stronger in cities southeast of the Hu Line, complementary in commercially attractive cities, and diminishing low-cost labor's traditional advantage. Importantly, intelligent technology adoption and policy implementation outperform mere digital infrastructure in promoting FDI. These results highlight intelligent development's crucial role in securing FDI within the digital-intelligent economy.

The role of foreign direct investment in promoting economic growth: Evidence from Poland, Ukraine, and Vietnam (2004–2024)

Impact of Chinese foreign direct investment on environmental stress in Pakistan: mediating role of technological innovation

South Africa has faced consistently elevated unemployment levels despite numerous macroeconomic reforms, prompting worries regarding the effectiveness of key economic indicators in promoting labour absorption. This study analyses the influence of economic growth (GDP), inflation (CPI), and foreign direct investment (FDI) on unemployment in South Africa, employing quarterly data from the first quarter of 2010 to the fourth quarter of 2023. The analysis utilises a quantitative design, implementing the Augmented Dickey-Fuller unit root test, the Johansen cointegration method, and a Vector Error Correction Model to evaluate the long- and short-term dynamics among the variables. The findings indicate that all variables are integrated of order one and possess a long-term equilibrium connection. Long-term estimates demonstrate substantial negative correlations, suggesting that increased GDP, CPI, and FDI are associated with a decrease in unemployment over time. In the near term, GDP elevates unemployment, indicating the prevalence of capital-intensive growth, whereas FDI persistently reduces unemployment and CPI remains negligible. These findings underscore the structural characteristics of unemployment in South Africa and the constraints of macroeconomic factors in facilitating short-term labour absorption. The report emphasises the significance of policies that promote labour-absorbing growth, improve the investment environment, and prioritise skills development to tackle ongoing unemployment.The report advocates for prioritising labour-intensive growth methods, enhancing the investment environment, and fortifying skills development systems to improve employment outcomes. These initiatives are essential for tackling persistent unemployment and fostering inclusive and sustainable economic growth.

ABSTRACT National innovation capacity (NIC) is a critical driver of long-term competitiveness, yet the structural determinants that underpin its development remain underexplored. This study investigates the economic, human, and institutional enablers of NIC using an unbalanced cross-country panel and a two-step system GMM estimator. The results reveal that human capital, measured by researcher density, labour force size, and entrepreneurial activity, and institutional quality are the most consistent and significant drivers of NIC. In contrast, macroeconomic factors such as GDP growth, trade openness, and foreign direct investment play a supportive role, contingent on a country’s absorptive capacity and governance strength. The findings advance strategic innovation theory by highlighting that innovation cannot be sustained by economic conditions alone; it requires strong human and institutional foundations. The study underscores the importance of integrated policy strategies that develop human capital, foster entrepreneurial ecosystems, and enhance institutional quality, enabling countries to build resilient and strategically oriented innovation systems capable of supporting long-term technological advancement.

ABSTRACT In the era of artificial intelligence, the broad application of artificial intelligence (AI) policies provides key technical support and intelligent solutions for energy transition. On the basis of balanced panel data covering 284 Chinese cities from 2003 to 2023, we apply a systematic generalized method of moments (GMM) model to assess the impact of AI policy frequency on the trajectory of energy transition. It is found that a 1% increase in the frequency at which AI policies are implemented leads to a 1.3% acceleration of energy transition. The estimation results considering the endogeneity problem and robustness tests are not significantly different from the main findings. Mechanism analysis revealed that technological innovation, environmental regulation, and the level of foreign direct investment all contribute significantly to the process of increasing the frequency of AI policy implementation and thus accelerating the energy transition. Heterogeneity analysis found that as the size of the city expands, the stronger the contribution to energy transition. Cities endowed with superior human capital, advanced financial development, and robust information infrastructure are poised to expedite their energy transition processes. Consequently, this study offers critical policy insights for synergizing AI development with the acceleration of energy transformation.

This study examines the direct role of the shadow economy in economic growth and its indirect roles through interaction with tax burden, institutional environment, foreign direct investment, trade openness, government consumption, and population growth. Although shadow economy has been comprehensively studied in the literature, both joint and environment-specific effects for emerging economies are not well documented. This research fills this void by integrating several dimensions of structure into one Bayesian MCMC model. The Bayesian approach is used because it is powerful in capturing parameter uncertainty and interaction that is challenging to model under limited data. Empirical evidence from a balanced panel of developing countries indicates that the shadow economy reduces per capita GDP, but such adverse impacts are dampened under strong institutions quality, higher foreign direct investment, and higher trade openness. Conversely, higher population growth and over government consumption reinforce its adverse impacts. The findings present a new, interaction-oriented account of shadow economy and contend that institutional change and good fiscal policy are essential in diminishing informality and promoting inclusive and sustainable growth.

This study examines whether the technological innovation performance of Chinese firms is driven by government Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policies—specifically the Catalogue for the Guidance of Foreign Investment Industries—or by endogenous spillovers among domestic firms. Utilizing a Difference-in-Differences (DID) framework, we investigate the impact of China’s FDI policy and inter-firm knowledge spillovers on firm-level innovation outcomes. Our identification strategy compares a treatment group of firms in industries prioritized by the Catalogue against a control group of non-beneficiary firms. The findings reveal that the policy’s impact is highly significant during the high-growth period (2002–2011) but dissipates during the “New Normal” era (2012–2019). Conversely, inter-firm spillovers consistently and significantly bolster innovation across both periods. Furthermore, regional analysis indicates that policy effects are most pronounced in the economically developed eastern provinces. These results suggest that as the Chinese economy matures, endogenous knowledge diffusion increasingly surpasses direct policy intervention as the major driving force of technological progress.

Purpose This study aims to examine the influence of foreign ownership and audit quality on aggressive tax avoidance among Malaysian industries with high levels of foreign direct investment (FDI). Design/methodology/approach This study utilised the alignment and entrenchment theory to delineate the impact of foreign shareholdings and audit quality on tax avoidance. The samples encompassed corporations from sectors with significant foreign direct investment. Findings Foreign ownership is associated with greater aggressive tax avoidance among Malaysian firms. However, the effect weakens after controlling for firm characteristics and varies across industries, with the strongest evidence observed in the electronics sector, suggesting that the relationship is conditional on firm fundamentals and sectoral context. Audit report lag is negatively associated with tax avoidance across all three proxies, indicating that extended audit scrutiny constrains opportunistic tax behaviour. Research limitations/implications This study focuses on firms from selected industries that represent major destinations of FDI in Malaysia, which might reduce its generalisability to other sectors or regions. Future researchers are encouraged to replicate this study in other emerging markets for a more holistic understanding. Practical implications This study underscores the requirements for regulators and policymakers to enforce stricter rules and regulations to decrease aggressive tax avoidance, especially among companies with significant foreign ownership. Higher audit quality standards should be implemented for more thorough oversight. Social implications The findings significantly contribute to fairer tax practices and fostered social equity. Stricter regulations could prevent the exploitation of tax loopholes to ensure Malaysian corporations realise their obligations towards national revenue. Originality/value This study provides unique insights into the association between foreign ownership, audit quality and aggressive tax avoidance among Malaysian firms by applying the alignment and entrenchment theory. Valuable implications are also contributed to policymakers, corporate managers, shareholders and academicians.

Indonesia's hilirisasi (downstreaming) mandate, enforced through a definitive nickel mineral export ban from January 2020, represents one of the most consequential applications of resource nationalism in contemporary Southeast Asian political economy. While aggregate indicators documented substantial Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows into metallurgical industrial parks, the sub-national distributional consequences remained critically underexplored prior to this study. Employing a Spatial Durbin Difference-in-Differences (SDM-DiD) framework applied to a balanced provincial panel of 34 Indonesian provinces across the period 2015 to 2024 (N = 340 observations), this study empirically decomposed the direct, indirect (spatial spillover), and total effects of the export ban on regional economic growth and income inequality. The treatment group comprised the three primary nickel-downstreaming hub provinces: Central Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, and North Maluku. Moran's I statistics confirmed significant spatial autocorrelation across all study years (range: 0.245-0.312, p < 0.001), validating the spatial modeling approach. The SDM-DiD estimation revealed a significant positive direct effect on regional GDP per capita in treated provinces (beta = 0.084, SE = 0.019, p < 0.001), confirming localized growth. However, the spatial spillover effect was significantly negative (theta = -0.052, SE = 0.021, p = 0.013), documenting a pronounced backwash effect on adjacent provinces. Within treated regions, income inequality widened significantly (Gini direct effect: beta = 0.018, p < 0.001), driven by skill-biased structural transformation associated with capital-intensive smelting operations. These findings established that Indonesia's hilirisasi mandate functions structurally as an enclave industrialization model, generating spatial polarization rather than inclusive regional development. Inter-regional fiscal equalization, enforceable backward linkage obligations, and peripheral human capital investment are identified as critical complementary policy mechanisms.

This study examines the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) in provincial income growth and convergence in Vietnam within a dynamic panel framework. Using a balanced dataset of 59 provinces over the period 2002–2022, the analysis employs the two-step System Generalized Method of Moments (System GMM) estimator to account for income persistence, endogeneity, and unobserved heterogeneity. The empirical model incorporates interaction terms to explore whether the growth effects of FDI vary with provincial development conditions and labor-market characteristics. The results reveal a high degree of persistence in provincial income dynamics, indicating that regional disparities evolve gradually over time. In a homogeneous specification, FDI does not exhibit a statistically significant average impact on income growth. However, once regional heterogeneity is explicitly incorporated, foreign investment becomes significantly associated with income dynamics. The negative interaction between FDI and initial income suggests that the marginal growth effect of FDI is stronger in poorer provinces, implying that foreign investment is associated with faster convergence through reduced income persistence. At the same time, the interaction between FDI and educated labor supply highlights the importance of local absorptive capacity and labor-market conditions in shaping the spatial realization of FDI benefits. Overall, the findings suggest that FDI is associated with differences in the dynamics of income adjustment across provinces, with potential implications for the speed of convergence. Its developmental impact appears to depend less on the scale of inflows than on the structural conditions that allow foreign investment to generate locally embedded productivity gains.