Pooled Mean Group Research Articles

Examining green productivity amidst climate change technological development and spillovers in the Nordic economies

The common ground of both critics and proponents of green productivity is arguably hinged on the main role of environmental technological advancement. Considering the drive for climate-neutral economy among the Nordic states, the current study examines the role of climate change technological development within the countries and technological spillovers across countries in the pursuit for green economy. By using a combination of pooled mean group approach of autoregressive distributed lag (for coefficient estimation) and the recently developed Granger non-causality approach by Juodis et al. (2021) for the panel dataset analysis over the period 1990–2018, the results reveal that both domestic technological development and spillovers from abroad promote long-run green productivity growth in the panel and country-specific estimations. In both estimations, the impact of international diffusion of climate change technologies on green productivity is found to be larger. Additionally, the influence of these two dynamics of climate change-related technologies on attaining greening economy is the most impactful in Sweden. In the remaining Nordic economies, climate change technology spillovers in Denmark are more impactful than in Finland and least in Norway, while climate change technological development in Norway drives green productivity more than in Finland and least in Denmark. As a robust insight, the Granger causality techniques revealed causality from climate change technologies within the countries, climate change technology spillovers, and population to green productivity. Consequently, public policies should promote green innovativeness and especially learning and knowledge transfer from other countries to achieve climate neutrality targets.

Investigating the modern renewable energy-environmental Kuznets curve (REKC) hypothesis for East Africa Community (EAC) countries

PurposeThe study aims to explore the validity of the modern renewable energy-environmental Kuznets curve (REKC) while considering the relevance of financial development in the consumption of modern renewable energy in East Africa Community (EAC). Modern renewable energy in this study includes all other forms of renewable energy except traditional use of biomass. The authors controlled for the effects of urbanization, governance, foreign direct investment (FDI) and trade openness.Design/methodology/approachPanel data of the five EAC countries of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda for the period 1996–2019 were used. The analysis relied on the use of the autoregressive distributed lag–pooled mean group (ARDL-PMG) model, and the data were sourced from the World Development Indicators (WDI), World Governance Indicators (WGI) and International Energy Agency (IEA).FindingsThe REKC hypothesis is supported for modern renewable energy consumption in the EAC region. Financial development positively and significantly affects modern renewable energy consumption, whereas urbanization, FDI and trade openness reduce modern renewable energy consumption. Governance is insignificant.Originality/valueThe concept of the REKC, although explored in other contexts such as aggregate renewable energy and in other regions, has not been used to explain the consumption of modern renewable energy in the EAC.

Financing sustainable environment in the wake of global warming for E7 economies: heterogeneous analyses based on NARDL and quantile regression

ABSTRACT Financial development as a viable tool in nation-building and economic expansion is generally established in growth empirics. That notwithstanding, its roles in the drives towards environmental sustainability have received commending and reprimanding views in recent times. However, empirical study advancing the asymmetric effects of financial development from the broader view of measures seems limited and evolving. Hence, the present study investigates the positive and negative effects of financial development measured by broad money and domestic credit to the private sector on environmental sustainability (CO2 emissions and ecological footprint) in the Emerging Seven (E7) economies from 1995 to 2019. The empirical evidence considers the intervention of government policy through fiscal policy instruments (government spending and tax revenue), eco-digitalization, affluence, and population growth in a STIRPAT framework. The main analyses focus on advanced estimators such as pool mean group, mean group, dynamic fixed effects, and panel quantile regression. Feedback shows that negative shocks from financial development captured by broad money induce more surges in CO2 emissions. Similarly, the negative shocks from domestic credit to private sectors promote CO2 emissions, while the positive shocks moderate the emissions. The findings also uncover eco-digitalization as a viable tool to achieve environmental sustainability in the E7 economies. Furthermore, the measures of fiscal policy have differing impacts on environmental sustainability as evident from the positive and negative signs attributed to government expenditure and tax revenue. Moreover, affluence and population growth exacerbate CO2 emission surges. Policy insights that drive environmental sustainability are suggested based on the findings.

Exploring the impact of public funds and eco-friendly innovations on reducing carbon pollution in North Africa.

The main objective of this study is to examine the impacts of green energy and public investment on the CO2 emissions in North Africa. Moreover, the study also tests the existence of the N-shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis for North African countries between 1995 and 2018. These factors were analyzed using the Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS), Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS), and Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimators to obtain estimations of heterogeneous parameters. The outcome of these tests and examinations showed that the N-shaped curve was confirmed. Secondly, The results of the study also demonstrate the effectiveness of renewable energy as an eco-friendly innovation in reducing carbon emissions. This finding highlights the positive impact that renewable energy sources can have in terms of emitting fewer carbon emissions compared to traditional energy sources. Moreover, public investment, which interprets government expenditure, and urbanization contribute to environmental degradation by increasing CO2 emissions in the case of North African countries. Furthermore, the findings also indicated a trade-off effect resulting from the correlation between CO2 emissions and economic development. Based on these findings, the study recommends that economic policymakers in North African countries prioritize transforming the structure of government expenditures to improve environmental quality, optimize the utilization of revenues from non-environmentally friendly energy resources to accelerate the energy transition, increase the exploitation of renewable energy, and promote environmental awareness in society. By implementing these recommendations, North African countries can balance economic growth and environmental quality while reducing their carbon footprint.

The relationship between renewable energy production and CO2 emissions in 27 OECD countries: A panel cointegration and Granger non-causality approach

Human-caused CO2 emissions are the primary cause of global warming. In this regard, determining the most effective approach for lowering CO2 emissions and the collateral risk of catastrophic natural disasters is crucial. This study examines the long-run relationship between disaggregated renewable energy production and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per capita for a panel of 27 OECD countries from 1965 to 2020. The panel-autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) models of the pooled mean group (PMG), mean group (MG), and dynamic fixed effect (DFE) were used to evaluate the relationship between CO2 emissions and energy production from biofuel, aggregated geothermal and biomass (GEOB), hydropower, nuclear, solar, and wind. As robustness checks, fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS), dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS), and common correlated effects mean group (CCEMG) estimators were used. Then, using a generalized method of moment (GMM) framework for panel vector autoregression (PVAR), the Granger non-causality between CO2 emissions and renewable energy production was investigated. GEOB, hydropower, nuclear, solar, and wind were found to be negatively and significantly correlated with CO2 emissions. GEOB, hydropower, and solar were the most effective renewable resources in reducing CO2 emissions. Granger non-causality approach showed unidirectional causation from hydropower, solar, and wind to CO2 emissions, bidirectional causation between CO2, and biofuel and GEOB, and unidirectional causation from CO2 emissions to nuclear. The findings were consistent across different model specifications and suggested a faster transition to GEOB, hydropower, and solar energy in OECD countries to reduce CO2 emissions and enhance environmental sustainability.

The hidden drivers of human development: Assessing its role in shaping BRICS-T's economics complexity, and bioenergy transition

As global challenges such as climate change, resource depletion, and social to identifying the key factors that drive progress in this area, researchers can contribute to the development of evidence-based policies and interventions that promote sustainable, equitable, and inclusive development. Despite the importance of human development, it remains a relatively underexplored area of research, highlighting the need for continued inquiry and innovation in this field. This study contributes to the growing literature by pioneering a study on governance, economic growth, economic complexity, environmental quality, biomass energy, and human development in BRICS-T countries between 1991 and 2019. Advanced econometric models are apply, A continuously-updated and fully-modified and continuously updated biased correction approach. For sensitivity analysis, this employs common correlated effects mean group, pool mean group, and fully modified ordinary least square, dynamic ordinary least square. According to the empirical findings, effective governance, economic growth, and biomass energy promote human development in BRICS-T countries. However, economic complexity and environmental quality negatively impact human development. Cleaner manufacturing minimizes emissions and ensures a healthy environment. BRICS-T economies must reduce carbon emissions and use renewable energy more to preserve the ecosystem and improve citizens' quality of life.

The impact of financial innovation and infrastructure on inbound tourism in Central Asia

This empirical study investigates the effect of financial innovation and infrastructure on inbound tourism in Central Asia, along with trade openness as a control variable. This study developed an infrastructure index for Central Asia comprised of different parameters of infrastructure. The data has been assessed for cross-sectional dependence, unit root and coefficients of parameters were obtained by pooled mean group autoregressive distributed lagged model and simultaneous quantile regression. Results show that financial innovation and trade openness have a significant and positive effect on inbound tourism in the long run whereas infrastructure has an insignificant effect. Dynamic stability analysis confirms that the model of the study is stable and will adjust itself from any imbalance within three years of span. The results of quantile regression highlight that financial innovation is positively associated with tourism development in Central Asia irrespective of quantile (Q25, Q50, Q75). Policy implications are provided based on research findings.

Realizing sustainable development goals in sub‐Saharan Africa: The role of industrialization on consumption‐based carbon emission

AbstractThe study analyzed the linkage among industrialization, trade openness, and consumption‐based carbon emissions in Sub‐Sahara Africa (SSA) to establish how Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 8 and 9 can be achieved without negatively affecting the climate—SDG 13. Based on insights drawn from the environmental governance and economic integration theories, we developed a model that connects industrialization, trade openness and consumption‐based carbon emission in SSA, as the region strives to balance development with climate protection. We used purposive sampling to select 30 out of 46 countries in SSA with readily available data on the International Energy Agency and the World Development Indicators databases from 2000 to 2021. The study utilized the dynamic common correlated effect and the pooled mean group estimators for the empirical analysis. The results revealed that industry growth has an affirmative link with consumption‐based carbon emissions. Similarly, urban growth recorded a positive association with carbon emission. Moreover, trade openness positively moderates the link between industry growth and carbon emissions. The findings affirm the need for strengthening policies and regulations to promote industry growth (SDG 9), while ensuring climate protection in SSA to achieve SDG 13.

Pooled Bewley Estimator of Long Run Relationships in Dynamic Heterogenous Panels

Using a transformation of the autoregressive distributed lag model due to Bewley, a novel pooled Bewley (PB) estimator of long-run coefficients for dynamic panels with heterogeneous short-run dynamics is proposed. The PB estimator is directly comparable to the widely used Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimator, and is shown to be consistent and asymptotically normal. Monte Carlo simulations show good small sample performance of PB compared to the existing estimators in the literature, namely PMG, panel dynamic OLS (PDOLS), and panel fully-modified OLS (FMOLS). Application of two bias-correction methods and a bootstrapping of critical values to conduct inference robust to cross-sectional dependence of errors are also considered. The utility of the PB estimator is illustrated in an empirical application to the aggregate consumption function.

Moving toward sustainable agriculture: The nexus between clean energy, ICT, human capital and environmental degradation under SDG policies in European countries

The United Nation's adaptation of the 2030 sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda has swung the attention toward sustainability. However, in achieving SDGs, this study investigates the nexus between agricultural productivity, renewable energy, ICT, human capital, CO2 emissions, and natural resources in a panel of ten European Union (EU) countries from 1996 to 2019. Our study uses the panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model of the Pool Mean Group (PMG) to estimate the long-run and short-run effects and heterogeneous causality approach. The empirical results ratify that a 1 % upsurge in the coefficient of renewable energy, ICT, and human capital increases agricultural productivity by 0.174 %, 0.030 %, and 2.158 % in the long run. Whereas, CO2 emission and natural resources decrease agricultural productivity. Finally, various causality exists among variables for EU countries. Our empirical results for the EU countries are notionally reliable and offer important policy implications accordingly.

Monetary Policy and Investment in ASEAN-5 Countries

Central bank policy interest rate has a role in economic activity such as investment in 5 ASEAN countries. The occurrence of the Asian Financial Crisis (AFC) in 1997-1998 changed the number of investments in the ASEAN-5 countries that were previously the destination of investors from developed countries. The declining level of economic and industrial stability in ASEAN-5 countries has reduced investor interest in investment. However, after AFC, from 2000 to 2019, 5 Southeast Asian countries (Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand) experienced an increase in investment. This study aims to analyze the effect of Central bank policy interest and macroeconomic variables such as GDP, Exchange Rate, Inflation, and Labor rate on investment in 5 ASEAN countries. The analytical method used in this study is Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) with Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimation. The results showed that the Central bank policy interest rate, Inflation, and Labor have a positive and significant effect on investment in the long term. Meanwhile, in the short-term, GDP has a positive and insignificant effect on investment.

Ecofeminism or techno-centrism? Analysing the gender-environment concoction in the Anthropocene: a study of OECD countries.

Women's participation and technological innovation have a crucial role in ensuring environmental sustainability in the long-run. However, the nature of this relationship has diverse opinions across the continuum. The present study focuses on the empirical relevance of this debate based on the theoretical underpinnings of ecofeminism and techno-centrism, using panel data on 37 OECD countries for the period 1990-2019. Employing the Pooled Mean Group (PMG) approach, the study constructs two models, based on ecofeminism and techno-centrism, respectively, and finds that both have a negative and significant impact on environmental degradation measured by the ecological footprint. The results suggest that equality of women in the labour markets and technological innovation through R&D expenditure are both viable developmental tools for ensuring environmental sustainability. Moreover, the empirical estimation also confirms the existence of an N-shaped environmental Kuznets curve between economic growth and environmental degradation in the case of selected OECD countries in both ecofeminist and techno-centric models.

Can environmental taxes decrease final energy consumption in the old and new EU countries?

Despite the harmonisation process within the EU area, there are many economic and political differences among European countries in promoting energy policies. Moreover, the status of implementation of environmental tax reforms in the new EU countries is very different from that in the old EU countries, and the economic and environmental impacts of such taxation are diverse. The objective of this paper was therefore to investigate whether the role of environmental taxes in reducing final energy consumption is the same in old and new EU countries. The analysis was conducted for 16 old and 11 new EU member states over the period 1995–2020 using Pooled Mean Group (PMG) and Mean Group (MG) estimators. The results indicate that environmental taxes have a negative long-term impact on final energy consumption in both groups of countries. However, this impact is much smaller in the new EU countries. Moreover, economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions increase final energy consumption. These results also suggest that in order to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, the new EU countries need to apply some stringent regulations and introduce further institutional and environmental reforms that support increasing the share of clean energy sources in the energy mix.

Declining population and GDP growth

Businesspeople and politicians seem to be afraid that population reduction will be accompanied by economic recession. In this paper we examine the experience of some countries of various sizes in which population has been declining and observe how GDP, GDP per capita, unemployment rate, and labour force participation rate are evolving during the period that population is declining. Using the pooled mean group (PMG) estimation method, we find that population decline can go hand in hand with growing GDP and increasing per capita GDP, and at the same time the labour participation rate may increase and unemployment may fall.

Government health expenditure and child health: empirical evidence from West African countries

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to study the effect of government health expenditure on the health of children (under-five mortality rate and prevalence rate of stunting) among West African countries.Design/methodology/approachThe study utilizes heterogeneous panel from the period 1990 to 2018 among 16 West African countries for the analysis. The effect of government health expenditure on under-five mortality rate is measured in per 1,000 live births while that of stunting is measured in percentage. The study employs Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimation technique and Impulse Response Functions (IRFs) for the analysis.FindingsThe results indicate that government health expenditure has negative effect on under-five mortality rate and prevalence rate of stunting in the long-run but not significant in the short-run. In addition, the IRFs result indicates that under-five mortality rate and prevalence rate of stunting both respond negatively to shocks in government health expenditure.Practical implicationsGovernments should ensure that inefficiencies in the public health sector are reduced by licensing the health workers of this sector and allowing independent bodies to appoint the heads of health institutions. This will improve the delivering of health services for the health of children.Originality/valuePrevious studies carried out have not examined the short-run and long-run effects of the relationship under study among West African countries.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-03-2022-0212

Does Financial Development in Relation to Remittances influence Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa?

Abstract This study investigates the influence of financial development on the relationship between remittances and economic growth within the Sub-Saharan Africa region. The study utilised panel data encompassing 42 countries, spanning the time frame 1980 to 2021. The research employed a cross-sectional augmented panel unit root test, as well as the Im-Pesaran-Shin unit-root test, to conduct the unit root analysis. The regression estimations employed the Pooled Mean Group and Mean Group/ARDL methodologies. The research findings demonstrate a significant association between the development of financial systems and sustained economic growth over an extended period. The findings from the empirical analysis indicate that there exists a substitutive relationship between financial development and the association between remittances and economic growth. The study proposes that it would be advantageous for financial policies in the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region to give priority to the implementation of efficient financial reforms with the goal of improving the overall depth of the financial sector. Keywords: Remittances, Financial development, ARDL, Economic growth, Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Impact of Agricultural Employment and Technological Innovation on the Environment: Evidence from BRICS Nations Considering a Novel Environmental Sustainability Indicator

This study fills a gap created by previous environmental investigations by including the impact of agricultural employment and technology on the load capacity factor (LCF) rather than solely focusing on CO2 or greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which only measure from the demand side; LCF provides a complete picture of environmental degradation by evaluating both the demand side and supply side. This connection is moderated further by considering the renewable energy and natural resource rent impacts. In this analysis, panel econometric methods are incorporated, including the cross-sectional dependence test. This study uses the Pooled Mean Group–Autoregressive Distributed Lag (PMG-ARDL) model to evaluate the level of effect independent factors had on the LCF of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) nations from 1992 to 2020 in the presence of a heterogeneous integration order. The estimations recognize heterogeneity in the effects of agricultural employment, renewable energy, natural resource rent, and technology on LCF, in the short run and long run. According to the empirical results, agricultural employment significantly enhances the LCF both in the short run and long run, implying that employment in agriculture improves environmental sustainability. However, increasing the use of renewable energy protects the environment from degradation only in the long run; it has no significant impact in the short run. On the contrary, natural resource rent and technology lead to a decline in environmental sustainability in the long run. Hence, this study recommends prioritizing renewable energy intake over other energies, providing proper incentives to motivate agricultural entrepreneurship to ensure a sustainable environment.

Short- and long-run relationship between financial development and economic competitiveness in WAEMU: does institutional quality matter?

PurposeThis paper aims to assess the short- and long-run effects of the interaction between institutional quality and financial development (FD) on the competitiveness of the WAEMU economy over the period 2007–2018.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology consisted of cross-referencing a synthetic indicator of FD with indicators of institutional quality and then estimating an auto regressive distributed lag model.FindingsThe results of the pooled mean group and dynamic fixed effect estimation show a positive and significant impact of this interaction on the competitiveness of the economy in the long run. In the short run, the results are quite similar to those in the long run for the direct effects but different for the crosses. Also, the analysis of country specificity shows that the results are similar to those in the short run since the interaction between FD and institutional quality (political stability and government effectiveness) negatively affects the competitiveness of Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Mali, and positively affects the competitiveness of Benin and Senegal.Social implicationsThese results suggest the need for effective policies to improve the quality of institutions to enhance the mobilization of financial resources through FD to ensure the competitiveness of economies. Improving the quality of the political and institutional environment is a prerequisite for economic competitiveness.Originality/valueThe paper is in line with the New Institutional Economics that developed in the 1970s. This referential framework is a heterogeneous body of work that encompasses works whose common point is the determination of the role of institutions in economic coordination. Unlike previous studies, which have focused on the contribution of the interaction between institutional quality variables and FD on economic growth, this paper analyzes the effects of this interaction on economic competitiveness. It, therefore, constitutes a contribution to this literature and aims primarily to fill this gap.

Exploring the dynamic effect of economic growth on carbon dioxide emissions in Africa: evidence from panel PMG estimator

The relationship between economic growth and environmental pollution continues to attract significant research interest for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers all over the globe. Theoretically, the environmental benefit of economic growth should be greater than its negative externality with higher level of development. However, from the African perspective, countries with higher economic performances often face several environmental challenges, which raises the doubt whether economic growth helps or constrains environmental quality improvement. Under the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis, this study re-examined the effect of economic growth on CO2 emissions conditional on the dynamics of urbanization, renewable energy, and good governance across 47 African countries using panel data from 1996 to 2019. We employ panel cointegration tests to establish whether there is a long-run equilibrium relationship among our variables. We also apply pooled mean group ARDL (PMG-ARDL) techniques and the Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality test to determine the long- and short-run effects of economic growth, urbanization, renewable energy consumption, and good governance on CO2 emissions. The results from the PMG estimator validate the EKC hypothesis since a 1% surge in GDP per capita increases emissions by 0.61% in the long run, while a 1% increase in its square decreases emissions by 0.03%. In the short-run, economic growth does not exercise any significant effect on emissions. Furthermore, results indicate a significantly negative and positive long-run effect of renewable energy and governance, respectively. Finally, our causality test shows bidirectional relationship between CO2 emissions and all the explanatory variables. Henceforth, we provided policy implications based on the study’s results.

Exploring the Causal Links of Public Spending on Bank-Based Financial Development in African Economies

This work examined the causal impact of types of government spending on bank-based financial development. It tests the influences of both government productive and non-productive spending on bank-based financial development. Selected 37 African economies between 1980-2018 were sampled. Both the short –run and long –run effects were assessed using either Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS), Mean Group (MG), Pooled Mean Group (PMG) and Dynamic Common Correlated Effects Mean Group (DCCEMG) estimators. Evidences support the hypotheses that both types of spending contribute positively to bank-based financial development. Bank-based financial development is more responsive to non-productive spending than it is to productive spending. Also, confirm the supportive roles of trade openness and GDP per capita, and the detriment of inflation to bank-based financial development. This study comprehensively unearths the impact of government spending on bank-based financial development in Africa by isolating spending into productive and non-productive types. Governments need to promote dual policies that address spending and financial development. They should avoid detrimental spending and promote enhancing spending within each type above. Spending that attract private agents, investments, saving, and liquidity in the financial sector, trade openness, and economic output should be promoted since these enhances bank-based financial development.