Shaping a greener future: The role of geopolitical risk, renewable energy and financial development on environmental sustainability using the LCC hypothesis.

The recent progress report of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2023 highlighted the extreme reactions of environmental degradation. This report also shows that the current efforts for achieving environmental sustainability (SDG 13) are inadequate and a comprehensive policy agenda is needed. However, the present literature has highlighted several determinants of environmental degradation but the influence of geopolitical risk on environmental quality (EQ) is relatively ignored. To fill this research gap and propose a inclusive policy structure for achieving the sustainable development goals. This study is the earliest attempt that delve into the effects o of geopolitical risk (GPR), financial development (FD), and renewable energy consumption (REC) on load capacity factor (LCF) under the framework of load capacity curve (LCC) hypothesis for selected Asian countries during 1990-2020. In this regard, we use several preliminary sensitivity tests to check the features and reliability of the dataset. Similarly, we use panel quantile regression for investigating long-run relationships. The factual results affirm the existence of the LCC hypothesis in selected Asian countries. Our findings also show that geopolitical risk reduces environmental quality whereas financial development and REC increase environmental quality. Drawing from the empirical findings, this study suggests a holistic policy approach for achieving the targets of SDG 13 (climate change).

Impact of economic policy uncertainty and renewable energy on environmental quality: testing the LCC hypothesis for fast growing economies.

This study investigates the influence of economic policy uncertainty and trade openness on load capacity factor for fast growing countries for time period of 1996-2019. The empirical outcomes verify the presence of the LCC hypothesis in fast growing economies. Results also show that economic policy uncertainty reduces environmental quality for lower quantiles, whereas renewable energy consumption is a useful tool for improving environmental quality. Moreover, the negative sign of the coefficient of trade openness demonstrates that the current pattern of trade is not providing the desired outcomes. Based on these empirical findings, we suggest a comprehensive policy framework to attain the targets of SDG 07 (renewable energy), SDG 08 (economic growth), and SDG 13 (climate action).

Covid-19 and oil and gold price volatilities: Evidence from China market.

Gold and crude oil are the influential commodities of the stock markets and real economy of the world in financial crises as well as in COVID-19 periods. However literature mainly focused on the effects of these commodities' prices only, and the volatilities in the prices of these commodities altogether with the prices got little attention. To fill in a major research gap, our study intends to estimate the dynamic relationship between oil prices, gold prices, oil prices volatilities and gold prices volatilities on the stock market of China. Using daily data over the period from 2009 to 2021, the study applied Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bound test approach for the purpose of empirical estimation. Moreover, Non linear ARDL and asymmetric Causality analysis has also been applied for more comprehensive asymmetric estimation. The findings of our study indicated that gold prices and oil prices negatively affect stock market of China in the long run. In terms of implied volatility index of these commodities, study finds negative impact of price volatility of oil but positive impact of the price volatility of gold on the country's stock market in the long run. However, in the short run, only oil price and gold prices have significant effect on the China's stock market. On the basis of our findings, we recommend the investors to make rational decisions in response to the uncertainties in these markets and should consider gold as a safe haven to hedge themselves in times of uncertainty. Policymakers should take appropriate actions and adopt proper mechanisms for dealing with the quick uncertainty flow of information from the oil to the stock market.

Teachers' Value Consonance and Employee-Based Brand Equity: The Mediating Role of Belongingness and Self-Efficacy.

This study investigated the impact of value consonance on employee-based brand equity through the mediating role of teachers' self-efficacy and belongingness. For this purpose, a deductive approach was followed, and data were collected under a cross-sectional research design from academia through a questionnaire. Prior approval from the administration was sought before administrating the questionnaire on a large scale and a sample of 520 teachers was approached in the first phase. At this stage, 418 answered questionnaires were received, while in the second wave, questions related to the teacher's self-efficacy and employee-based brand equity were asked from the respondents. Out of these 418 re-distributed questionnaires, 387 were received back and after discarding the partially filled and incomplete questionnaires, the useable sample size was left as 372. Data have been analyzed by using the structural equation modeling technique, which was assessed through measurement and structural model. Results indicate that value consonance can promote positive behaviors in the workplace. Moreover, teachers with high self-efficacy can develop based on brand equity. Similarly, employees with high-value consonance develop a sense of belongingness with their academic institutes. Limitations and future directions are also discussed.