Unidirectional Association Research Articles

Mitigation pathways towards climate change: Modelling the impact of climatological factors on wheat production in top six regions of China

Northern and Southern regions are the two major wheat production belts of China. Agro–climatic resources have changed significantly in recent years, threatening staple food production in these regions. As a result, it is critical to investigate the long–term effect of climate change and agri–inputs on wheat production in China's top six wheat producing provinces (Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Jiangsu, Anhui, and Hubei) from 1995 to 2020. The estimated long-run results from the FGLS, DOLS, and D–K estimators revealed that climatic factors, specifically temperature, had a negative impact on wheat production, while precipitation had a positive impact. The findings also revealed that agrochemical inputs, such as fertilizer, increases wheat production, whereas pesticide use decreases wheat production significantly. The results from the Dumitrescu–Hurlin panel causality test showed a bidirectional causality between rainfall, fertilizer use, and cultivated area with wheat production, while a unidirectional causality association is running from labor force to wheat production. The current study provides several critical policy recommendations for China's sustainable food production through green agricultural practices and robust climate mitigation strategies.

Hypertension and psychosis.

Hypertension, a prevalent component of metabolic syndrome (MetS), is a well-known risk factor for cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Psychosis is a feature in the schizophrenia spectrum. Meta-analysis suggests that the prevalence of hypertension in schizophrenia and related disorders is 39%. This may be explained by a unidirectional association between hypertension and psychosis, in that psychosis can be a causative factor of hypertension via antipsychotic medication, inflammation and irregular autonomic nervous system activity through multiple mechanisms. Obesity is a side effect of antipsychotic medication and is a risk factor for hypertension. Obesity leads to raised blood pressure, atherosclerosis, increased triglyceride concentration and decreased high-density lipoprotein concentration. Inflammation accompanies hypertension and obesity. In recent years, the role of inflammation in the onset of psychosis has been increasingly recognised. It underlies the immune dysregulation observed in both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Interleukin-6, a marker and driver of inflammation, is related to obesity and plays a role in the pathogenesis of MetS and hypertension. The lack of preventive care of hypertension and other MetS risk factors for patients on antipsychotic medication is reflected in the high incidence of CVD in this population. It is important to detect and treat MetS and hypertension in patients with psychosis in order to reduce cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in this population.

The association between frailty and the risk of medication-related problems among community-dwelling older adults in Europe.

Studies revealed unidirectional associations between frailty and medication-related problems (MRPs) among older adults. Less is known about the association between frailty and the risk of MRPs. We aimed to assess the bi-directional association between frailty and the risk of MRPs in community-dwelling older adults in five European countries. Participants were 1785 older adults in the population-based Urban Health Centres Europe project. Repeated assessments were collected at baseline and one-year follow-up, including frailty, the risk of MRPs, and covariates. Linear regression analyses were conducted to examine the unidirectional associations. A cross-lagged panel modeling was used to assess bi-directional associations. The unidirectional association between frailty at baseline and the risk of MRPs at follow-up remained statistically significant after adjusting for covariates (β=0.10, 95%CI:0.08, 0.13). The association between the risk of MRPs at baseline and frailty at follow-up shows similar trends. The bi-directional association was comparable with reported unidirectional associations, with a stronger effect from frailty at baseline to the risk of MRPs at follow-up than reversed path (Wald test for comparing lagged effects: p< 0.05). This longitudinal study suggests that a cycle may exist where older adults with higher frailty levels are more likely to have a higher risk of MRPs, which in turn contributes to developing a higher level of frailty. Further research is needed to validate our findings and explore underlying pathways.

Asthma and anxiety development in Australian children and adolescents

Evidence has suggested a bidirectional association between both the effects and onset of asthma and anxiety. The direction of this association in children and adolescents is less clear. The study evaluates whether anxiety in children is associated with the development of later asthma or, by contrast, whether asthma in children precedes anxiety. Parental reports from 9369 children at two age points (4-5 and 14-15 years old) and from baby (B) (recruited at birth in 2004) and kindergarten (K) (recruited at 4-5 years of age in 2004) cohorts of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) were analyzed. Asthma cases were defined as reports of doctor-diagnosed asthma and the use of asthma medication or/and wheezing. Scores of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) defined anxiety. We found a unidirectional association between asthma in children aged 4-5 years and future anxiety development in weighted generalized linear adjusted models (B cohort OR (CI 95%)=1.54 (1.14-2.08); K cohort OR (CI 95%)=1.87 (1.40-2.49)). Children with asthma (no anxiety at 4 years) had a higher prevalence of anxiety in adolescence compared with nonasthmatics (B cohort=26.8% vs 17.6%: K cohort=27.7% vs 14.3%). Anxiety in childhood was not associated with the development of asthma from 6 years old to adolescence. Australian children with asthma have a greater risk of developing anxiety from 6 to 15 years old. This suggests that early multidisciplinary intervention may be required to support children with asthma to either prevent the increased risk of anxiety and/or promote optimal anxiety management.

Asymmetrical effects of renewable energy consumption, financial development, and urbanization on the economic growth of China: does the role of technology matters.

Our paper investigates the association of renewable energy, financial development, urbanization, and growth in China along with technology. The newly developed econometric techniques (asymmetries) have been applied to explore short and long-run nonlinear relation among variables by utilizing annual data for the period of 1965-2021. In nonlinear cointegration, findings highlight the importance of renewable energy consumption for growth and development. Urbanization also confirms a positive association with growth and development where positive shocks were more dominant to support the growth process. The stock of technology brings a positive impact on growth and development whereas financial development results reveal to consider policy carefully. Asymmetric causality supports a uni-directional causal association between renewable energy, financial development, and growth. Policy recommendations are also highlighted according to the results.

Appetite hormone dysregulation, body mass index, and emotional dysregulation in nonobese adolescents with first-episode schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder: a cross-sectional association study.

Evidence has suggested that emotional dysregulation is a transdiagnostic feature in schizophrenia and major affective disorders. However, the relationship between emotional dysregulation and appetite hormone disturbance remains unknown in nonobese adolescents with first-episode schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder. In total, 22 adolescents with schizophrenia; 31 with bipolar disorder; 33 with major depressive disorder; and 41 healthy age-, sex-, and body mass index (BMI)/BMI percentile-matched controls were enrolled for assessing levels of appetite hormones, namely leptin, ghrelin, insulin, and adiponectin. Emotional regulation symptoms were measured using the parent-reported Child Behavior Checklist-Dysregulation Profile. Adolescents with first-episode schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder exhibited greater emotional dysregulation symptoms than the control group (P=.037). Adolescents with bipolar disorder demonstrated higher log-transformed levels of insulin (P=.029) and lower log-transformed levels of leptin (P=.018) compared with the control group. BMI (P<.05) and log-transformed ghrelin levels (P=.028) were positively correlated with emotional dysregulation symptoms. Emotional dysregulation and appetite hormone disturbance may occur in the early stage of severe mental disorders. Further studies are required to clarify the unidirectional or bidirectional association of emotional dysregulation with BMI/BMI percentile and appetite hormones among patients with severe mental disorder.

Investigating the relationship between three-dimensional perception and presence in virtual reality-reconstructed architecture

Identifying and characterizing the factors that affect presence in virtual environments has been acknowledged as a critical step to improving Virtual Reality (VR) applications in the built environment domain. In the search to identify those factors, the research objective was to test whether three-dimensional perception affects presence in virtual environments. A controlled within-group experiment utilizing perception and presence questionnaires was conducted, followed by data analysis, to test the hypothesized unidirectional association between three-dimensional perception and presence in two different virtual environments (non-immersive and immersive). Results indicate no association in either of the systems studied, contrary to the assumption of many scholars in the field but in line with recent studies on the topic. Consequently, VR applications in architectural design may not necessarily need to incorporate advanced stereoscopic visualization techniques to deliver highly immersive experiences, which may be achieved by addressing factors other than depth realism. As findings suggest that the levels of presence experienced by users are not subject to the display mode of a 3D model (whether immersive or non-immersive display), it may still be possible for professionals involved in the review of 3D models (e.g., designers, contractors, clients) to experience high levels of presence through non-stereoscopic VR systems provided that other presence-promoting factors are included.

Impact of Education on Economic Growth: Evidence from SAARC Countries

The primary objective of this paper is to examine the influence of education on SAARC members' economic growth to estimate panel data periods from 1990 to2019, the current study employed panel unit root such as ADF Fisher Chi-square, LLC and IP&amp;SW and for long-run and short-run co-integration applied PMG approach, Kao (1999) co-integration, and Dumitrescu-Hurlin Panel Causality test. Primary School Enrollment (PSE), Secondary School Enrollment (SSE), and Tertiary School Enrollment (TSE) have a constructive and significant influence on GDPPC growth in the long term but have a negligible outcome in short run. In all three models, negative noteworthy value of ECM suggests junction from the short term to long-run equilibrium. Moreover, there is a unidirectional causal association running from PSE, SSE, and TSE to GDPPC. This study concluded that the government should place a greater emphasis on education to stimulate economic growth.

Employing the Panel Quantile Regression Approach to Examine the Role of Natural Resources in Achieving Environmental Sustainability: Does Globalization Create Some Difference?

In the modern era of globalization, natural resources have become an important factor in shaping a sustainable future; however, the evidence on the role of globalization in reducing the adverse environmental impacts of natural resources is relatively scarce. The current study explores the dynamic interaction between energy consumption, economic development proxied through the human development index, population, natural resources, globalization, and ecological footprint under the core idea of the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology (STIRPAT). This research applies panel data for the period from 1999 to 2018 in nine countries with the highest oil production (Brazil, Canada, China, Iran, Kuwait, Russia, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and the United States). The results of this study are based on the panel Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR). Empirical findings foundthat economic development, energy consumption, population, and natural resources contribute to increased environmental degradation, while globalization seems the main source of environmental sustainability. Concerning the indirect impacts of globalization, expanded interaction and integration among oil-producing countries helped to inhibit ecological footprint; nevertheless, natural resources complicate the design of a sustainable future by promoting environmental degradation. Additionally, a bidirectional causality relation was discovered between population, energy consumption, globalization, and ecological footprint; however, the panel Dumitrescu and Hurlin causality test results revealed a unidirectional causality association from economic development to ecological footprint and from natural resources to ecological footprint. Our findings shed new light on the criticality of globalization in achieving environmental sustainability by providing cleaner practices that will prevent rent-seeking.

Maternal BMI and inflammation during pregnancy: a bi- or unidirectional association?

Maternal BMI and inflammation during pregnancy: a bi- or unidirectional association?

How Do Institutional Quality, Natural Resources, Renewable Energy, and Financial Development Reduce Ecological Footprint without Hindering Economic Growth Trajectory? Evidence from China

Institutional quality, financial development, and natural resources primarily determine how economic representatives support their operational and production behaviors towards escalating the renewable energy share in the whole energy mix and protecting ecological quality. In this way, this paper is the first to investigate the influence of institutional quality, natural resources, financial development, and renewable energy on economic growth and the environment simultaneously in China from 1996 to 2020. The cointegration approaches verify the presence of a long-run association between the selected variables. The autoregressive distributed lag model outcomes reveal that institutional quality and renewable energy utilization greatly diminish ecological footprint. At the same time, other prospective indicators such as financial expansion and natural resources significantly enhance ecological footprint levels in the short- and long-run. Furthermore, institutional quality, financial expansion, renewable energy, and natural resources significantly trigger economic growth. Besides this, this study has revealed the unidirectional causal association from institutional quality and financial expansion to ecological footprint. In contrast, bidirectional causality occurs between renewable energy, natural resources, ecological footprint, and economic growth. The current research results offer some policy implications that will help to reduce the detrimental influence of environmental deprivation, without hindering the economic growth trajectory in the case of China.

Comparative Study on Lower-Middle-, Upper-Middle-, and Higher-Income Economies of ASEAN for Fiscal and Current Account Deficits: A Panel Econometric Analysis

For the last three decades, ASEAN has been facing a persistent fiscal deficit. However, the impact of fiscal deficit on the current account deficit in the sub-groups of ASEAN is still unknown. This study aims to investigate the impact of fiscal deficit on current account deficit and their relationship among the three sub-groups of ASEAN which are based on gross national income (GNI), i.e., lower-middle-, upper-middle-, and higher-income countries. The analysis covers the panel data collected over the span of the last three decades (1990–2020) for ten Southeast Asian nations (ASEAN). The analyses incorporate the panel methodology for data analysis such as panel unit root for checking data stationarity, cointegration testing, panel autoregressive distributed lag (PARDL) for short- and long-run analysis, cointegration regression (fully modified and dynamic ordinary least squares) for significance, the panel Dumitrescu and Hurlin Granger causality test for examining causal relationships in tested variables, and stability diagnostics and CUMSUM and CUSUMSQ techniques for structural breaks and coefficient stability in the model. In lower-middle-income economies (LMIE), results indicate the existence of a unidirectional causal relationship from the current account deficit (CAD) to the fiscal deficit (FD), suggesting a reverse causal relationship from CAD to FD. In the long run, FD does not significantly induce CAD, while real interest rate (RIR) and exchange rate (EXC) influence CAD. In upper-middle-income economies (UMIE), results specify that there is no causality between FD and CAD. The RIR, EXC, and FD are significant to CAD in the long run. In higher-income economies (HIE), RIR and FD have an influence on CAD in the long run period. Moreover, from CAD to FD, a unidirectional causal association exists, and likewise for LMIE. This is a reverse causal relationship from CAD to the FD, supporting the current account targeting hypothesis (CATH) in both the LMIE and HIE groups. This study recommends that the LMIE and HIE groups can use the fiscal deficit as a tool to eliminate the unfavorable current account position. Policymakers can target EXC and RIR to stabilize CAD in long run. In UMIE and HIE, policymakers must consider FD alarming, as it can induce CAD in the long run. The RIR can be the targeted factor in the sub-groups of ASEAN.

The economic cost of environmental laws: Volatility transmission mechanism and remedies

Since the last three decades, the world has faced many changes that exhibit significant influence on natural resources, environmental laws, and the economic performance of various countries and regions. As the most developed country in the World, any policy adaptation of implementation in the US could influence the policies of other countries and regions. However, several factors could affect the country's economic performance, yet unexplored empirically, but are important from policy perspectives, which motivates this study. Therefore, the current study investigates the US's environmental laws, natural resource volatility, and economic performance from 1990 to 2020. The study used a novel wavelet methodology that considers wavelet power spectrum and wavelet coherence and provides short- and long-run estimates. The empirical results of the wavelet power spectrum reveal that environmental policy stringency and natural resource rents (total natural resource rents, natural gas rents, oil rents) are vulnerable in the selected time period. Additionally, the wavelet coherence empirically reports that there is a bidirectional causal association between environmental policy stringency, total natural resource rents, oil rents, and economic performance. In the short-run, the causality has been observed from these variables to economic performance, while from economic performance to these variables in the long run. Moreover, a unidirectional causal association runs from economic performance to natural gas rents. This study recommends strengthening environmental policy stringency and natural resources hedging to encourage economic performance and environmental sustainability.

Temporal Associations Between Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms and Depression in Response to Online Expressive Writing Interventions in a Hispanic Sample

Some expressive writing (EW) interventions targeting posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) may reduce both PTSS and comorbid depression symptoms. The temporal associations between PTSS and depression symptom levels in response to EW interventions are unknown. This study examined the directionality of PTSS and depression symptom levels from baseline to 1-week, 1-month, and 3-month follow-ups of two online EW interventions in a Hispanic sample with diverse trauma experiences. Participants (n = 70) completed either emotion-focused or fact-focused writing for 3 consecutive days online. A manifest autoregressive model with cross-lagged effects and treatment condition was analyzed. All but one first-order autoregressive path were statistically significant, with later PTSS and depression scores significantly predicted by those scores at preceding time points. The cross-lagged effects findings suggest that earlier PTSS levels influenced later depression levels, but earlier depression did not influence later PTSS, demonstrating a unidirectional temporal association. Severe PTSS may hinder EW treatment gains in depression. Superior outcomes for emotion-focused writing relative to fact-focused writing were also found.

The Impact of Renewable Energy on Carbon Neutrality for the Sustainable Environment: Role of Green Finance and Technology Innovations

Over time environmental degradation has become a severe concern globally, especially in China. Therefore, to solve this serious issue, environmental economists have tried their best to explain the crux of environmental degradation. Besides such efforts, they have not reached a single opinion. Nowadays, economic progress has been considered a primary target to compete with other nations at any cost of environmental degradation. But, there may be some alternative solutions to reduce such costs, and the existing literature has not considered such core indicators. Thus, the present study assesses the eco-friendly variables for a sustainable environment in which green finance, green energy, and research and development expenditures. Moreover, this study also focuses on socio-economic factors like economic growth, urbanization, and openness. Time series estimators such as fully modified ordinary least square and Markov switching regression model are employed to investigate selected variables’ long-run impact on carbon emissions. The estimated outcomes show the significant contribution of green finance, green energy, openness, and R&amp;amp;D expenditures to environmental quality. Likewise, China’s urbanization and economic progress are harmful to environmental quality. Moreover, this study investigates the causal association between the selected variables and shows the two-way causal association between openness and emissions, RE and openness, and green finance and R&amp;amp;D expenditures. The results of the uni-directional association are also interesting. The current study develops some interesting policy implications for a sustainable environment on behalf of empirical outcomes.

Economic performance and natural resources commodity prices volatility: Evidence from global data

The current research study aims to investigate natural resources, commodity prices volatility and global economic performance covering the period from 1970 to 2021. This study uses various variables, i.e., total natural resources volatility (TNR), crude oil price (CR), oil rents (OR), and natural gas rents (NGR), to measure natural resources price volatility. This study uses the wavelet approach for empirical investigation of causal association in the short and long run. The empirical estimations of the wavelet power spectrum reveal that all the variables are vulnerable, specifically in global crisis events. Besides, the wavelet coherence approach indicates a bidirectional causal association exists between natural resources commodity price volatility (TNR, OR, NGR) and global economic performance. However, the causal impact of natural resources price volatility is found only in the short-run, while economic performance significantly causes volatility in natural resources price in the long run. Moreover, the wavelet coherence authenticates unidirectional causal association running from global economic performance to CR in both the short-run and long-run. This study provides some policy insights which could have essential economic and natural resources price volatility control measures for policy-makers and future researchers.

Environmental Impact of Urbanization, Bank Credits, and Energy Use in the UAE—A Tourism-Induced EKC Model

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has developed rapidly into one of the highest per capita income nations globally. The travel and tourism sector is a central contributor to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), employment, foreign exchange earnings, and the country’s economic diversification strategy. However, the rapid growth of the sector and increase in international tourist arrivals are also major contributors to carbon emissions and long-term environmental challenges. In this context, we employed a tourism-induced Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) model for the UAE from 1984 to 2019. The study applied an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model to determine the marginal impact of tourist arrivals and related variables, namely, bank credits to the private sector, urbanization, and energy use, on CO2 emissions. The Pesaran bounds test indicated redundancy of short run estimates. The long-run coefficients confirmed the EKC hypothesis of inverted U-shape for carbon emissions and per capita income, along with environmental degradation due to tourist arrivals and financial development. Notably, urbanization and energy use highlighted the positive steps taken by the government. Granger causality tests indicated a unidirectional association from GDP, bank credits, and energy consumption to carbon emissions. Importantly, tourist arrivals and urbanization had bidirectional causality with carbon dioxide levels. This study is the first to apply the tourism-induced EKC model to the UAE, and the findings have important implications for policymakers and practitioners. The causality results highlight the need to balance tourism targets and sustainable economic growth through the adoption of ‘green’ standards. The results also indicate the potential importance of financial sector efforts to boost green investments and implement clean energy-related technologies.

What drives renewable energy in the group of seven economies? Evidence from non-parametric panel methods

In the last few decades, the environmental degradation, global warming, and climate change remained the life-threatening issues across the globe. Specifically, the use of non-renewable fossil fuels is regarded as the most significant reason of such inclined issues. However, the policy-makers and scholars are now more concerned about the recovery of environmental quality, where renewable energy is considered as the primary solution to the existing issue. The developed economies and environment related international organizations rapidly enhances the use and promotion of renewable energy after the taking pledge in the Kyoto Protocol Agreement (1997). Nonetheless, the scholars are participating in analyzing the key drivers of renewable energy. Still, the proper drivers of renewable energy are not properly addressed in the existing literature. To fill this gap, current study analyzed the group of seven (G7) economies over the period 1990-2020. Using various panel data techniques such as slope heterogeneity, cross-section dependence, unit root, and cointegration test, the results indicates that the slopes are heterogeneous, and the cross-section dependence, as well as cointegration exists among the panel economies. Besides, the irregular distribution of data leads to the adoption of novel Method of Moments Quantile Regression accommodating four quantiles, i.e., ( Q 0.25 , Q 0.50 , Q 0.75 , and Q 0.90 ). The examined results asserted that economic growth and energy efficiency negatively and significantly affects renewable energy consumption ( REC ). Whereas, developed environmental related technologies, environmental taxes, and composite risk index are positively affecting REC in the study panel. Besides, improved energy efficiency (energy efficiency squared) also contributed to the promotion of renewable energy consumption. The Granger causality test estimates reveals bidirectional and unidirectional causal association between the variables. Based on the empirical results, policies are provided that could help developed economies in the promotion of renewable energy consumption, improve economic growth, and enhances environmental sustainability.

Impact of industrialization and non-renewable energy on environmental pollution in Australia: Do renewable energy and financial development play a mitigating role?

Environmental pollution is a principal concern for all countries. In particular, the issue is alarming for Australia as the country has been suffering from various environmental disasters for some recent years. Therefore, examination the roles of some variables that are related to environment are vital. To this end, this work endeavors to ascertain the impacts of industrialization, non-renewable and renewable energy use, and financial development on environmental pollution in Australia. Using the data period of 1990–2020, a series of econometric techniques such as the Augmented Dickey-Fuller test, Phillips-Perron test, Autoregressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) bounds test and the pairwise Granger causality test are applied. The findings reveal that industrialization and non-renewable energy use increase while the square of industrialization, renewable energy use, and financial development reduces CO2 emissions in Australia. The validation of the environmental Kuznets’ curve (EKC) hypothesis is also found. Bidirectional and unidirectional causal association of the studied variables with CO2 emissions are attained. All the outcomes are theoretically and empirically relevant and have important policy implications.

Dynamic Relationship between Environment, Taxation and Economic Growth in the Saharan Africa: Case Study of Nigeria

Background: Worldwide environmental pollution has called for overwhelming concern of researchers and stakeholders in the last twenty years because of the menace it unlashes on man’s life. The aim of this research work is to ascertain the causation among economic advancement, Carbon emission, energy consumption and taxation. The study focused on the Nigerian economic and the period under review is thirty-three (33) years. Methods: Test was performed to explain the accurate transmission among the dependent and the independent variables. This study employed Granger estimation to ascertain the direction of the connection amongst the variables. Result: Results revealed that tax has unidirectional connection with economic advancement. The result also showed that Carbon emission has unidirectional relationship with economic growth. The result further revealed that energy consumption has a unidirectional association with taxation. This study suggests that economic growth does not affect energy consumption, taxation and carbon emission. This study recommended that for future study, intending researchers should use fuel consumption to proxy energy consumption. The study also recommended that the Nigerian government should increase tax paid by oil companies in order to curtail their excesses and generate more revenue.