The nCOVID-19 and financial stress in the USA: health is wealth.

Since its first report in the USA on 13 January 2020, the novel coronavirus (nCOVID-19) pandemic like in other previous epicentres in India, Brazil, China, Italy, Spain, UK, and France has until now hampered economic activities and financial markets. To offer one of the first empirical insights into the economic/financial effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in the USA, this study utilized the daily frequency data for the period 25 February 2020-30 March 2020. By employing the empirical Markov switching regression approach and the compliments of cointegration techniques, the study establishes a two-state (stable and distressing) financial stress situation resulting from the effects of COVID-19 daily deaths, COVID-19 daily recovery, and the USA' economic policy uncertainty. From the result, it is assertive that daily recovery from COVID-19 eases financial stress, while the reported daily deaths from COVID-19 further hamper financial stress in the country. Moreover, the uncertainty of the USA' economic policy has also cost the Americans more financial stress and other socio-economic challenges. While the cure for COVID-19 remains elusive, as a policy instrument, the USA and similar countries with high severity of COVID-19 causalities may intensify and sustain the concerted efforts targeted at attaining a landmark recovery rate.

Is pass-through of the exchange rate to restaurant and hotel prices asymmetric in the US? Role of monetary policy uncertainty.

This study examines the exchange rate pass-through to the United States (US) restaurant and hotel prices by incorporating the effect of monetary policy uncertainty over the period 2001:M12 to 2019:M01. Using the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model, empirical evidence indicates asymmetric  pass-through of exchange rate and monetary policy uncertainty. Moreover, a stronger pass-through effect is observed during depreciation and a negative shock in monetary policy uncertainty, corroborating asymmetric pass-through predictions. Our results further show that a positive shock in energy prices leads to an increase in restaurant and hotel prices. Furthermore, asymmetric causality indicates that a positive shock in the exchange rate causes a positive shock to restaurant and hotel prices. We found feedback causal effects between positive and negative shocks in monetary policy uncertainty and positive and negative shocks in the exchange rate. Additionally, we detected a one-way asymmetric causality, flowing from a positive (negative) shock to a positive (negative) shock in energy prices. Therefore, these findings provide insights for policymakers to achieve low and stable prices in the US restaurant and hotel industry through sound monetary policy formulations.

On the nexus between globalization, tourism, economic growth, and biocapacity: evidence from top tourism destinations.

Several studies have investigated the relationship between tourism, consumption of energy, globalization, and ecological footprint. However, the role of biocapacity alongside tourism development in environmental sustainability is yet to be documented in the extant literature. No doubt, the biocapacity of a country, its level of tourist's arrival, as well as globalization all contribute immensely to ecological footprint. Consequently, this study looks at long-run and causality connections with a special focus on bio-capacity. The study uses the pooled mean group-autoregressive distributed lag model (PMG-ARDL) methodology to test the causality relationship during 2016 international tourists' receipt from world tourism organization data files for 10 tourism destinations. Empirical result based on the panel PMG-ARDL confirms the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis for the 10 tourism destinations countries investigated. Furthermore, the panel ARDL estimator was used to estimate the short-run and long-run relationships simultaneously between biocapacity, tourist arrivals, GDP per capita, globalization, and ecological footprints. While the Dumitrescu and Hurlin panel causality test was used to establish causality relationships among the highlighted variables. The trade-off between economic growth and environmental quality suggests that tourist arrival dampens environmental quality. In addition, the study finds that growing biocapacity affects ecological footprints negatively. Furthermore, an increase in tourism-related activities, globalization, and economic production has the potential to damage the quality of the environment. To this end, given the study results, there is a need to pursue green tourism which can reduce environmental degradation and destruction of land caused by multiple tourism-related transportation and construction of tourist facilities respectively in the top ten tourist destination countries.

The role of economic freedom and clean energy in environmental sustainability: implication for the G-20 economies.

With the increasing challenge of attaining sustainable balance in socioeconomic-ecosystem activities, the aspects of the global goals are continously being harnesed in order to ensure a sustainable interaction. As an alliance of the United Nations, the G-20 member countries have not only committed to attaining the Sustainable Development Goals 2030, the alliance body has further fostered frameworks that are targeted at advancing global economic and environmental sustainability. Within this context, the current study examined the environmental sustainability effects arising from the economic freedom prowess in the panel of the G-20 economies over the period 2000-2016. Among the sparse studies, the study employed the indices of economic freedom: freedom to trade internationally, regulation, sound money, legal framework, and property right and alongside the real income and renewable energy consumption as explanatory indicators. With the result of the difference- and two-step system GMM (generalized method of moments), the legal system and property right, sound money, freedom to international trade, and regulatory efficiency are detrimental to the panel countries' environmental quality. Although this is likely to be untrue for countries that have advanced their climate actions and especially the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030, it suggests a dearth in the SDGs achievement among the developing and emerging economies. Moreover, it probably shows the depth of traditional or business-as-usual practices (such as the lack of sustainable economic and environmental practices) and the socioeconomic system that are obtainable in most of the developing and emerging economies. Thus, the study put forward tangible policies that are essential for governance and toward attaining desirable country-specific SDGs.

Pollutant emission effect of tourism, real income, energy utilization, and urbanization in OECD countries: a panel quantile approach.

Although the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries are largely regarded as a high human development index and high-income economies, evidence has continued to reveal the existential gap among the member countries drive toward achieving environmental sustainability. Giving this motivation, this research employed a panel quantile approach to examine the role of square of per capita income (the environmental Kuznets curve-EKC hypothesis) and per capita income, tourist arrivals, energy consumption, and urbanization on environmental quality in the panel of (31) selected OECD countries over the period 1995-2016. A handful of vital results were presented in the study. First, the evidence of EKC (inverted U-shaped) proposition is establish just for the lower quantiles while a no EKC (U-shaped) hypothesis is found from the 0.25th to 0.90th quantile. In specific, environmental quality starts to improve when the per capita real income peaked at 11, 271.13 USD (0.05th quantile) and 8, 604.15 USD (0.10th quantile) while the environment becomes damaged after income per capita becomes 89, 321.72 USD (0.25th quantile) and 36, 315.50 USD (0.50th quantile). Moreover, the effect of international tourism arrivals, urbanization, and energy consumption are all significant and damaging to environmental quality across the quantile but with a slightly minimized impact toward the upper quantile. Furthermore, there is statistical significant evidence of Granger causality at least from tourism development, energy consumption, urbanization, and per capita income to carbon emissions. Considering the aforementioned results, the study outlined relevant policy mechanism that is poised to guide the OECD member countries on the sustainable development path.

Perspectives of globalization and tourism as drivers of ecological footprint in top 10 destination economies.

Beyond the anticipated experience associated with tourism destinations, the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has further tasked (especially the destination countries) on the importance of tourism to achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). From this dimension, this study employed the ecological footprint of the 10 most visited countries (France, Spain, United States, China, Italy, Mexico, United Kingdom, Turkey, Germany, and Thailand) over the period 1995-2016. Specifically, the study employed an econometric approach and found that increase in tourism arrivals and globalization is detrimental to the attainment of sustainable environmental quality in a long term. Precisely, a 1% increase in international arrivals and globalization is responsible for a 0.18 and 0.89% increase in ecological footprint in the long-run. These impacts of tourism activities and globalization are detrimental to the environmental quality of the destination countries. Meanwhile, the real income per capita and biocapacity in the destination countries improve the environmental quality of the panel of destination countries in the long-run. In addition, the study found significant evidence of Granger causality from tourism and real income to ecological footprint without feedback, the globalization-ecological footprint Granger causality nexus is with feedback. Moreover, potentially effective policies for government and other stakeholders especially toward attaining Global goals were proffered in the study.

A drain or drench on biocapacity? Environmental account of fertility, marriage, and ICT in the USA and Canada.

In either case of ecological and biocapacity surplus or deficit, the precautionary effort toward optimizing the natural capital posits a potential framework for environmental sustainability. In studying the environmental account of fertility, marriage, and technological advancement in the USA and Canada, the autoregressive distributed lad-bound testing is employed over the experimental period 1990-2014. Importantly, the study revealed that the interaction of fertility and marriage exerts a significant and negative impact of biocapacity in both the USA and Canada and in short run and long run. Moreover, while the impact of energy use in both countries is significant and positive in both the short and long run, the magnitude of the impact is almost negligible. Similarly, an improvement in technological advancement in the countries is empirically observed to cause a decline in the biocapacity in both the long and short term. These posit that both energy use and technological advancement in Canada and the USA do not necessarily improve the productive capacity of the countries ecosystems. In general, the study provides policy frameworks for stakeholders toward addressing the environmental peculiarity of the USA (a biocapacity debtor) and Canada (a biocapacity creditor).

The role of ecological footprint and the changes in degree days on environmental sustainability in the USA.

In addition to the adverse effect of extreme weather and weather variation across the globe, the ecological deficit accounting associated with the USA is perceived to have further worsen the country's environmental quality. Considering the aforementioned motivation, this study examined the effects of cooling degree days, heating degree days and ecological footprint on environmental degradation in the USA over the period of 1960 to 2016. While employing the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and Bounds testing to cointegration approaches, the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is further incorporated in the estimation model to avoid estimation bias thus enhancing a robust estimate. The result overwhelmingly found that the cooling degree days, the heating degree days and the ecological footprint accounting aggravates the country's environmental degradation. Worse still, the study further presents that there is short-run adverse impacts of the heating and cooling degree days, and the short-run and long-run ecological footprint on the country's environmental sustainability. Moreover, there is statistical evidence that the income growth in the USA especially in the long run will not also improve the environmental quality. Irrespective of the income-environmental degradation long-run relationship, the relieving impact of income growth on environmental degradation is observed in the short run. In general, the study presents relevant policy pathway for implementation.

The dynamic nexus of crop production and population growth: housing market sustainability pathway.

The urban poor residents in South Africa are over time known for imbalance and inadequate housing amidst recent concern of shock in food production. In studying this peculiar problem, this study investigates the cointegration and long-run equilibrium relationship of population growth, crop production, and the housing price in the country. Empirically, a quarterly data from 1975:Q1 to 2015:Q4 is employed using the conventional Autoregressive Distributed Lag. The investigation shows strong significant evidence of cointegration and a quarterly speed of adjustment of 17.2% to long run in the system. Also, as the population grows, a decline in house price index is experienced in the long run. Although unusual, adequate and sustainable housing plan, demand-supply dynamics, in respect to a country's population expansion could posit observation. But, in the short run, a strongly significant positive association is observed. It shows further that positively short-run and long-run relationships significantly exist between crop production and house price index. In reality, caution is essential in the introduction of land redistribution policy to avoid hampering the housing policies and 2030 housing target of the government.

Renewable energy consumption in Coastline Mediterranean Countries: impact of environmental degradation and housing policy.

The significance of the natural geographical characteristics and ecological formation of the Coastline Mediterranean Countries (CMC) suggests a further examination of the dynamics of the renewable energy consumption (renewables) within the aforesaid region. As such, the dynamic impact of carbon emissions and the housing construction policy vis-à-vis dwellings, building and residential developments on the renewable energy consumption is investigated among Spain, France, Slovenia, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon and Israel. The dynamic autoregressive distributed lag methods of the pooled mean group, mean group and dynamic fixed-effect estimators are adopted for the empirical investigation over the periods 1999-2014 with real income and tourism employed as an additional variable. Using the PMG estimators, empirical results show that positive and statistically significant relationship exists among the variables in the long run. A 1% increase in housing construction policy, real income tourism and carbon emissions leads to (0.955), (8.622), (0.007) and (6.805) increase in renewable energy growth, while deviations in the short run significantly adjust to long-run equilibrium under an unforeseen disturbance at a moderate annual speed of about 73% annually. The inference from the short-run estimated coefficients indicates that housing construction policy is not a driver of renewables in Israel. From a policy standpoint, proposed strategic housing development policy and environmental pollution mitigation policy by policymakers should be void of causing a disservice toward the enrichment of renewable energy generation domestically in the panel countries.

Renewables, food (in)security, and inflation regimes in the coastline Mediterranean countries (CMCs): the environmental pros and cons.

In the present (twenty-first) century, the pertinent challenge of attaining the regime of food security with low pollution amidst the drive for sustainable economy and energy efficiency is core to governance and intergovernmental agencies. Therefore, in an attempt to investigate environmental issues among the coastline Mediterranean countries (CMCs) for the first time, the current study examines the dynamic long-run nexus of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions with food production and inflation rate over the annual period 1995-2014. Using a dynamic Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach, the consumption of renewable energy in the panel of sixteen (16) CMCs is empirically observed to be an efficient policy vehicle for mitigating CO2 emissions. Also, in all the examined CMCs, consumption of renewables is observed to cause significant decline in CO2 emissions, thus securing a sustainable environment. However, in the long run and in the panel of CMCs, the study reveals that increase in food production (a drive toward food security) increases environmental risk. Additionally, the study found that high inflation regime in the panel CMCs is associated with low CO2 emissions especially in the long-run, thus necessitating efficient policy mechanism. In adopting the genetic resources of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources, as well as employing price control policy, the members of the CMCs might have unearthed a suitable policy directive in effectively sustaining environmental quality.

The role of renewable energy, immigration and real income in environmental sustainability target. Evidence from Europe largest states.

In spite of the continued deployment of technologies, innovations toward addressing the challenges of global warming, forecasting and sustaining quality environment have remained the herculean endeavour of the advanced states. Also, being migrants' destinations, resulting from the availability of economic opportunities, the target of attaining low-carbon, energy efficiency, and the cleaner atmospheric environment by these advanced economies is further bewildered. In that light, we investigate the impact of renewable energy consumption and migration on the carbon dioxide emissions of the panel of European Union's largest economies of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom over the period of 1990-2016. The consistency of the group fully modified least square and dynamic ordinary least square presents elasticity of -0.13 and -0.14 respectively for the nexus of renewables and carbon emissions. Similarly, 0.04 and 0.05 are the respective elasticity of the two models for the nexus of migration and carbon emissions. In support of extant literature, the nexus of carbon emissions with gross domestic product and consumer price index are significant, and respectively positive and negative. In addition, the study reveals evidence of Granger causality with feedback between renewable energy consumption and carbon emissions, and between consumer price index and carbon emissions. On the other hand, a unidirectional Granger causality running from migration to carbon emissions is observed. In practical term, the study presents policy frameworks for the examined countries and other advanced nations. The implementation of the presented policy pathways are potentially geared toward a forecastable, sustainable environmental quality and energy efficiency targets.

Cooling and heating degree days in the US: The role of macroeconomic variables and its impact on environmental sustainability.

Beyond employing the cooling and heating degree days variables for evaluating the climatic conditions and the expected energy needs in the United States, a subtle concern is the underpinning role of the environmental sustainability amidst socio-economic activities. As such, the current study is design to examine the role of fossil fuel energy consumption, ecological footprint, and urban population on the degree days viz-a-vis the cooling and heating days in the United States over the period 1960-2015. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag bound testing model employed reveals the importance of the ecological footprint, fossil fuel energy consumption, and urban population on the cooling and heating degree days of the United States. Result posits that each of fossil fuel and the urban population plays a positive and negative role as regard the cooling degree days and the heating degree days respectively, especially in the long run. Importantly, the empirical results support the argument that the increase in the consumption of the fossil fuel sources of energies are responsible to cause more cooling degree days, thus resulting to longer and hotter periods in the United States but vice versa for the heating degree days. Similarly, the investigation outcome draws from the argument that the increase in the urban population is a potential cause of high environmental temperature, thus responsible for lengthy heat periods (cooling degree days) and resulting in more energy needs and technologies for cooling. As expected, the reverse is the case for the heating degree days, especially in the long-run. As a policy standpoint, policymakers are to further adopt improved and effective guideline for housing and building constructions that are weather specifics. In formulating policy vehicle for each of the seasonal dynamics, the economic benefits of each of the climatic measurements should be considered especially for both the short- and long-run environmental sustainability.