Analyzing environmental impact assessment of income inequality, globalization, and growth in sub-Saharan African countries.

Despite the growing literature on the inequality-emissions nexus, this area of empirical interest is still inconclusive, particularly in the era of globalization. Hence, this empirical work investigates the effect of income inequality on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions controlling the model for globalization. Considering the unique characteristics of various proxies of inequality, different proxies have been employed to develop an in-depth understanding of the inequality-emission nexus. The Driscoll-Kraay and generalized least square regression approaches are used for 38 sub-Saharan African countries from 1990 to 2016. Empirical results infer that higher income inequality promotes carbon reduction in the sample countries of the study. Further, findings suggest that globalization is beneficial for the environment by contributing to carbon emission mitigation. Several additional variables are used to validate the findings. The study offers some important policy implications in the end.

Does energy innovation play a role in achieving sustainable development goals in BRICS countries?

It is widely discussed that greenhouse gases (GHGs) are the main culprit behind global warming. The conventional energy sources (oil, coal, and gas) mainly realize GHGs in the atmosphere. Due to this, the world's countries are switching towards clean energy sources and investing more in projects related to innovation in the energy sector. Thus, this study investigates the role of energy innovation in combating GHGs emissions by taking the environmental Kuznets curve for BRICS economies. The FMOLS and DOLS estimators are employed throughout 1996-2016. The findings documented that energy innovation plays an important role in mitigating GHGs emissions. Moreover, the result strongly approves the EKC hypothesis for BRICS countries in the significance of energy innovation. Finally, it is recommended that expanding the public budget in energy R&D expenditures can help to reduce GHG emissions and promote sustainable growth in BRICS countries.

Analyzing the relationship between poverty, income inequality, and CO2 emission in Sub-Saharan African countries.

Poverty and environmental degradation concerns are remained at top priority in achieving sustainable development targets. However, countries are still struggling in achieving poverty alleviation, reducing income inequality, and mitigating environmental pollution which requires immense attention. Hence, this study is an attempt to examine the linkage between, income inequality, poverty, and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions for the 40 Sub-Saharan African countries over the period 2010 - 2016. Findings obtained from the Driscoll Kray regression estimator suggest that a rise in income inequality contributes to increasing CO2 emissions. Further, an increase in poverty has a detrimental effect on environmental pollution in Sub-Saharan African countries. Results suggested important policy implications in the light of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the study's sample countries.

Modeling the non-linear relationship between financial development and energy consumption: statistical experience from OECD countries.

The linkage between financial development and energy consumption is widely investigated in the literature. However, the non-linear relationship between financial development and energy demand is still under debate. Therefore, this study aims to examine the non-linear relationship between financial development, economic growth, and energy consumption in OECD countries. The study uses the Driscoll-Kraay standard errors panel regression model for spanning from 1980 to 2016. The empirical findings indicate that an inverted U-shape relationship exists between financial development and energy consumption as well as between economic growth and energy consumption. Moreover, the feedback hypothesis is found between financial development and energy use. Additionally, income and energy use granger cause each other. The innovative findings contribute to extant literature, which is of special interest to the country's policymakers regarding energy efficiency.

Effect of natural resources, renewable energy and economic development on CO2 emissions in BRICS countries.

Economic development drives industrialization, which increased the value of the extracted natural resources. Excessive usage of natural resources, through agriculture, deforestation, and mining can affect the environment. In this regard, the present study investigates the effects of natural resources' abundance on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The study uses annual panel data spanning from 1990 to 2015 in BRICS countries. The augmented mean group (AMG) panel algorithm, robust to crosssectional dependence and heterogeneity, infers the heterogeneous effect of natural resources on CO2 emissions among BRICS countries. Abundance of natural resources mitigates CO2 emission in Russia, but contributes to pollution in South Africa. In addition to this, natural resources help to form Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis in Brazil, China, Russia, and South Africa. Finally, causality analysis suggested feedback hypothesis between natural resources and CO2 emissions.

The effect of financial development on ecological footprint in BRI countries: evidence from panel data estimation.

This work aims to contribute to the existing literature by investigating at the impact of financial development on ecological footprint. To achieve this goal, we have employed Driscoll-Kraay panel regression model for a panel of 59 Belt and Road countries in the period from 1990 to 2016. The findings suggest that financial development increases ecological footprint. Moreover, economic growth, energy consumption, foreign direct investment (FDI), and urbanization pollute the environment by increasing ecological footprint. In addition, several diagnostic tests have been applied to confirm the reliability and validity of the results. From the outcome of the study, various policy implications have been proposed for Belt and Road countries to minimize the ecological footprint.

Dynamic linkages between road transport energy consumption, economic growth, and environmental quality: evidence from Pakistan.

The focus of the present research work is to investigate the dynamic relationship between economic growth, road transport energy consumption, and environmental quality. To this end, we rely on time series data for the period 1971 to 2014 in the context of Pakistan. To use sulfur dioxide (SO2) emission from transport sector as a new proxy for measuring environmental quality, the present work employs time series technique ARDL which allows energy consumption from the transport sector, urbanization, and road infrastructure to be knotted by symmetric relationships with SO2 emissions and economic growth. From the statistical results, we confirm that road infrastructure boosts economic growth. Simultaneously, road infrastructure and urbanization hampers environmental quality and causes to accelerate emission of SO2 in the atmosphere. Furthermore, economic growth has a diminishing negative impact on total SO2 emission. Moreover, we did not find any proof of the expected role of transport energy consumption in SO2 emission. The acquired results directed that care should be taken in the expansion of road infrastructure and green city policies and planning are required in the country.

The effect of ICT, financial development, growth, and trade openness on CO2 emissions: an empirical analysis.

This study investigates the impact of Internet use, financial development, economic growth, and trade openness on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in selected European Union (EU) countries. To this end, pooled mean group (PMG) estimator is utilized for panel data from 2001 to 2014. Empirical findings suggest that Internet use has long-run relationship with CO2 emissions and lowering the environmental quality in EU countries. Also, the electricity consumption has a positive and significant effect on CO2 emissions. Moreover, interestingly, economic growth and financial development have a diminishing negative impact on CO2 emission. Heterogeneous panel Granger causality results suggest unidirectional causality running from Internet use to CO2 emissions. The finding implies that the European Union countries did not achieve the level of green information and telecommunication (ICTs) consumption. Overall, the innovative findings indicate that Internet use is raising the threat to the sustainable development. Thus, to curb and mitigate CO2 emissions from Internet use and electricity consumption is the need of time to maintain the sustainable development in EU countries.

Modeling the impact of transport energy consumption on CO2 emission in Pakistan: Evidence from ARDL approach.

The objective of this research is to examine the relationship between transport energy consumption, economic growth, and carbon dioxide emission (CO2) from transport sector incorporating foreign direct investment and urbanization. This study is carried out in Pakistan by applying autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) and vector error correction model (VECM) over 1990-2015. The empirical results indicate a strong significant impact of transport energy consumption on CO2 emissions from the transportation sector. Furthermore, foreign direct investment also contributes to CO2 emission. Interestingly, the impact of economic growth and urbanization on transport CO2 emission is statistically insignificant. Overall, transport energy consumption and foreign direct investment are not environmentally friendly. The new empirical evidence from this study provides a complete picture of the determinants of emissions from the transport sector and these novel findings not only help to advance the existing literature but also can be of special interest to the country's policymakers. So, we urge that government needs to focus on promoting the energy efficient means of transportation to improve environmental quality with less adverse influence on economic growth.

Financial development, globalization, and CO2 emission in the presence of EKC: evidence from BRICS countries.

This study examines the impact of energy consumption, financial development, globalization, economic growth, and urbanization on carbon dioxide emissions in the presence of Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) model for BRICS economies, by using a family of econometric techniques robust to heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence. Results from LM test, CIPS and CADF unit root test, Westerlund Cointegration test, the Dynamic seemingly unrelated regression (DSUR), and Dumitrescu-Hurlin Granger causality test show that (i) the data is cross sectionally dependent and heterogeneous; (ii) carbon dioxide emissions, energy consumption, financial development, globalization, economic growth, square of GDP and urbanization have integration of order one; (iii) the examined variables are co-integrated; (iv) energy consumption and financial development contribute to the carbon dioxide emissions whereas globalization and urbanization have negative but insignificant relationship with carbon dioxide emissions; (v) supports the EKC hypothesis in BRICS economies; (vi) bidirectional causality exists among energy consumption, financial development, economic growth and square of GDP with carbon dioxide emissions whereas globalization and urbanization have unidirectional relationship with carbon dioxide emissions. Since these panel techniques account for heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence in their estimation procedure, the empirical results are robust and reliable for policy recommendations. Furthermore, this study also uses time series tests (ADF, P-P, and FMOLS) to find the empirical results for each of the country and finds mixed results. Empirical findings directed towards some important policy implications.

Financial instability and CO2 emissions: the case of Saudi Arabia.

This study aims to investigate the nexus between financial instability and CO2 emissions within the multivariate framework in Saudi Arabia's economy over 1971-2016. Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model is used to estimate long-run dynamics followed by Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) to detect the direction of causality. The result of the study reveals that financial instability has an insignificant impact on CO2 emissions. However, electricity consumption has an adverse impact on environmental quality by producing a huge amount of CO2 emissions in the atmosphere. The coefficients of oil and non-oil GDPs also suggest that both oil and non-oil GDPs contribute to producing a massive amount of CO2 emissions. Bi-directional causality is observed among all the core variables of the study. Moreover, the reliability and validity are confirmed by applying several diagnostic tests. This study provides novel findings which not only help to advance the existing literature but can be a particular interest to the country's policymakers regarding financial sector and its role in environmental degradation.

The effect of ICT on CO2 emissions in emerging economies: does the level of income matters?

In the modern era of globalization, the rapid increase in information and telecommunication technologies (ICTs) contributes in various sectors of an economy; however, the environmental consequences of ICTs cannot be ignored. Therefore, the study investigates the nexus between ICTs, economic growth, financial development, and environmental quality in emerging economies. The novel feature of the study is that the interaction term of ICT is introduced with economic growth and financial development. The empirical findings of the study are based on panel mean group (MG) and augmented mean group (AMG) estimation methods from 1990 to 2015. The following empirical results are established: first the ICTs significantly affect CO2 emissions. Second, the moderating effect of ICT and financial development stimulate the level of CO2 emissions. Third, economic growth contributes CO2 emission; however, the interaction between ICT and GDP mitigates the level of pollution. Policy thresholds with the R&D in ICT sector are required to mitigate the level of CO2 emission. Introduction of green ICTs projects in the financial sector is a better choice to improve the energy efficiency.

The nexus between energy consumption and financial development: estimating the role of globalization in Next-11 countries.

In the modern era of globalization, the economic activities expand with the passage of time. This expansion may increase demand for energy both in developing and developed countries. Therefore, this study assesses the impact of financial development on energy consumption incorporating the role of globalization in Next-11 countries. A group of panel estimation techniques is used to analyze the panel data and time series data for the time 1990-2014. The empirical results of the study suggest that financial development stimulates energy consumption. Also, globalization increases demand for energy consumption, although the single country analysis suggests that the effect of globalization on energy demand is heterogeneous among N-11 countries. Furthermore, feedback hypothesis is confirmed between financial development and energy consumption. Also, bidirectional causality is found between economic growth and energy consumption. The findings urge for the attention of policymaker in emerging countries to develop a strategy to reduce the consequences of energy consumption by controlling resource transfer through globalization to the host country and by adopting energy conversation policies.

Nexus between financial development and CO2 emissions in Saudi Arabia: analyzing the role of globalization.

This study examines the contribution of financial development to environmental degradation in Saudi Arabia in the period from 1971 to 2016, controlling the model for globalization and electricity consumption. The autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) and vector error correction methods (VECM) are applied to the long-run and causal relationship, respectively. Empirical results indicate that financial development contributes to CO2 emissions and degrades environmental quality. The results also show that the role of globalization in environmental degradation is insignificant and that electricity consumption is the main culprit behind the growing CO2 emissions in Saudi Arabia. In addition, bidirectional causality exists between globalization and CO2 emissions in the long run, and financial development and CO2 emissions Granger-cause each other. Insights from the study help policymakers to understand the roles of financial development and globalization in environmental degradation and to comply with global mandate for the reduction of CO2 emissions.

Management practices and performance of mergers and acquisitions in Pakistan: mediating role of psychological contract.

UNLABELLED: The objective of this study is to examine the direct and indirect effect of management practices (procedural justice, coordination approach, communication system, integration strategy, and coping programs) on merger and acquisition (M&A) performance in the Pakistan banking industry. Psychological contract (PC) acts as a mediator between Management practices and M&A performance. The Present study distributes a structured questionnaire to 700 bank employees of different management cadres. The useful response rate is 76 % (536 employees). It uses PLS-SEM technique for data analysis. FINDINGS: (1) procedural justice is a key strategy which has highly significant direct and indirect effect on M&A performance; however integration strategy and the communication system have an only direct effect. (2) PC performs partial mediation at different levels between management practices and M&A financial and non-financial performance. This study provides an effective solution to solve the soft issues during and post-M&A process. This is one of the few studies which effectively integrate the five constructs into a single framework to study their effects on M&A performance. Limitations and future research directions are presented in the last section of the study.