The impact of digital financial development on corporate leverage ratio: The case of a-share listed non-financial enterprises in China's Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges.

This study investigates the impact of digital finance on corporate leverage ratios. The study employed a large sample of China's Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share non-financial listed enterprises from 2011-2020. The study's results depict that the development of digital finance can significantly reduce the leverage ratio of enterprises. We empirically identified that digital finance affects the difference in the term structure of the corporate leverage ratio. It was found that the development of digital finance has a significant negative impact on enterprises' short-term and long-term leverage ratios. Moreover, our heterogeneity analysis shows that the negative effect of digital financial development on corporate leverage ratios is different in state-owned and non-state-owned enterprises, large-scale and small-scale enterprises, and high-leverage and low-leverage enterprises. Mechanism analysis shows that the development of digital finance can reduce corporate leverage by lowering financing costs, alleviating financing constraints, and weakening non-systemic risks. Therefore, policymakers should focus on developing and adopting digital finance by creating a supportive regulatory environment, improving access to digital financial services, and encouraging innovation in the digital finance sector. Finally, our results remain robust after addressing endogeneity issues and conducting robustness checks.

Does FDI foster technological innovations? Empirical evidence from BRICS economies.

The idea behind the spillover effect of FDI on economic growth is based on the idea that multinational companies can bring technological innovation and rich knowledge to host countries. Therefore, FDI plays a vital role in technological innovations. This study aims to investigate the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on the technological innovation of BRICS countries from 2000 to 2020. This study uses the latest econometric techniques, such as the cross-sectional dependence (CD) test, second-generation unit root tests, panel cointegration tests and the Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality test. For long-run run estimation, this study uses the augmented mean group (AMG) panel estimator and the common correlated effects mean group (CCEMG) estimator for empirical analysis. The findings of the study show that foreign direct investment (FDI), trade openness, economic growth, and research & development expenditure positively impact technological innovation in BRICS countries. Also, the model's long-term causality and lagged error correction term (ECT) are significantly negative. Suggested policy measures will be helpful for BRICS economies in boosting technology innovation through FDI.

Bank Specific Risks and Financial Stability Nexus: Evidence From Pakistan.

This article investigates the nexus between bank-specific risks and the financial stability of the banks for a panel data set of 15 scheduled banks in Pakistan over a 12-year period from 2009 to 2020. Using the fixed-effect model, the study result shows that bank-specific risks, i.e., credit risk and liquidity risk are detrimental to bank stability, whereas funding risk has no significant impact on bank stability. Besides these, bank size has also a negative impact on bank stability, whereas the return on assets (ROA) revealed a positive influence. To ensure stability, bank management should establish policies that confirm secure loan granting and timely reimbursement from customers to minimize the credit risk. Besides this, management should keenly observe the liquidity position and should also effectively mobilize the customer deposits to attain financial stability.

The effect of renewable energy development, market regulation, and environmental innovation on CO2 emissions in BRICS countries.

The relationship between energy, environment, and economic growth has been received a lot of attention recently among scientific studies, but environmental sustainability remains a global issue. Renewable energy development, green technological innovations, and regulatory policy mechanisms can all help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support environmental sustainability. The purpose of this study was to look at the influence of renewable energy development, market regulation, and environment-related innovation on CO2 emissions in the BRICS countries from 1990 to 2020. For empirical analysis, it uses second-generation panel unit root test and updated linear and nonlinear cointegration techniques. To this end, this study employs symmetric and asymmetric approach to linear and nonlinear relationship among study variables. The findings indicate that there is long-run symmetric and asymmetric relationship between renewable energy development, market regulation, environment-related innovation, and CO2 emissions. The market regulation plays significant mediating role in relation between renewable energy development, environment-related innovation, and CO2 emissions. Our findings suggest that BRICS countries need to more focus on the environment-related innovation and renewable energy development. They should design market-based environmental regulation policies, emphasize on environmental taxes, expand renewable energy development, and environment-related innovations. Such strategies are key to limiting CO2 emissions and gain environmental sustainable.