scholarly journals Do Economic Policy Uncertainty and Geopolitical Risk Lead to Environmental Degradation? Evidence from Emerging Economies

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 5866
Author(s):  
Muhammad Khalid Anser ◽  
Qasim Raza Syed ◽  
Hooi Hooi Lean ◽  
Andrew Adewale Alola ◽  
Munir Ahmad

Since the turn of twenty first century, economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and geopolitical risk (GPR) have escalated across the globe. These two factors have both economic and environmental impacts. However, there exists dearth of literature that expounds the impact of EPU and GPR on environmental degradation. This study, therefore, probes the impact of EPU and GPR on ecological footprint (proxy for environmental degradation) in selected emerging economies. Cross-sectional dependence test, slope heterogeneity test, Westerlund co-integration test, fully modified least ordinary least square estimator, dynamic OLS estimator, and augmented mean group estimator are employed to conduct the robust analyses. The findings reveal that EPU and non-renewable energy consumption escalate ecological footprint, whereas GPR and renewable energy plunge ecological footprint. In addition, findings from the causality test reveal both uni-directional and bi-directional causality between a few variables. Based on the findings, we deduce several policy implications to accomplish the sustainable development goals in emerging economies.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Liu ◽  
Zepeng Zhang

Abstract More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has created massive economic policy uncertainty (EPU). EPU and its economic fallout have been a hot topic of study, however, the impact of EPU on CO2 emissions has been seldom addressed to date. This paper investigates the direct impact of the EPU on CO2 emissions and indirect effect via the environmental regulation at the national and regional levels using the panel data model and provincial panel data from 2003 to 2017 in China. The empirical results show that the central region is the most special one, which all explanatory variables except energy consumption are all non-significant even at the 10% level. For other samples, there is a significant positive correlation between EPU and CO2 emissions, whether in the national or regional level. Additionally, environmental regulation alone can achieve the purpose of curtailing carbon emissions. However, when the EPU is taken into consideration, environmental regulation exerts a significantly positive effect on CO2 emissions, leading to unintended increase in emissions. Moreover, the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis was confirmed in the national and eastern samples, while CO2 emissions increase monotonically as economic level grows for western datasets. Based on the overall findings, some policy implications were put forward.


2019 ◽  
Vol 239 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 957-981 ◽  
Author(s):  
Volker Clausen ◽  
Alexander Schlösser ◽  
Christopher Thiem

Abstract This paper analyzes spillovers and the macroeconomic effects of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) in Europe over the last two decades. Drawing on the newspaper-based uncertainty indices by Baker et al. (2016, Measuring Economic Policy Uncertainty. Quarterly Journal of Economics 131 (4): 1593–1636), we first use the Diebold and Yilmaz (2014 On the Network Topology of Variance Decompositions: Measuring the Connectedness of Financial Firms. Journal of Econometrics 182 (1): 119–134) connectedness index methodology to investigate the static and dynamic patterns of EPU spillovers. We find substantial spillovers across the European countries. Over time, Germany in particular has become increasingly connected to the other economies. In a second step, we investigate the economic impact of EPU shocks using a structural VAR. The detrimental influence of uncertainty turns out to be regime-dependent. We identify a pre-crisis, a crisis and a post-crisis regime, and the effect is only significant in the former two. Finally, the impact of EPU shocks is also heterogeneous across the monetary union’s most important members.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 457-476
Author(s):  
Nithya Shankar ◽  
Bill Francis

Purpose The paper aims to investigate the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) (i.e. uncertainty due to government policies) on fine wine prices. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses the Baker et al. (2016) monthly news-based measure of EPU for the leading wine markets: the USA, the UK, France, Germany and China in conjunction with monthly fine wine pricing data from the London International Vintners Exchange (Liv-ex). The wine sub-indices used are the Liv-ex 500 (Bordeaux), Burgundy 150, Champagne 50, Rhone 100, Italy 100, California 50, Port 50 and Rest of the World 50. The Prais–Winsten and Cochrane–Orcutt regressions are used for our analyses to correct for effects of serial correlation. Time lags are chosen based on the appropriate information criterion. Findings Changes in EPU levels negatively impact changes in the Liv-ex 500 index for all our leading wine markets except France, the Champagne 50 index for the UK and the Burgundy 150 and the Rhone 100 indices for Germany, with the effects being significant for at least up to a quarter before EPU is detected. The authors did not find significant results for the EPU of France. Practical implications The paper aims to provide insights into whether EPU creates opportunities or threats for investors and wineries. Originality/value A forward-looking news-based EPU measure is used to gain insights into how the different Liv-ex sub-indices react to increases in uncertainty centered around government policies across a sample of different countries.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
LINGLING QIAN ◽  
YUEXIANG JIANG ◽  
HUAIGANG LONG ◽  
RUOYI SONG

We are the first to explore the effect of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and the COVID-19 pandemic on the correlation between the cryptocurrency index CRIX and the world stock market portfolio, as well as the hedging properties of CRIX. To this end, we mainly apply the dynamic conditional correlation model with mixed data sampling regressions, a threshold vector autoregressive model and the generalized impulse response function. We demonstrate that the correlation is influenced by the uncertainty stance of the economy and behaves differently in low-, medium- and high-uncertainty periods. Most of the abnormal market relations exist in high levels of EPU or during the COVID-19 period, and the impact of global EPU is greater than that of EPU originating in the United States, Europe, Russia and China. Moreover, the CRIX can serve as a hedge asset against the world stock market. The high (low) level of EPU has a significantly positive (negative) effect on the optimal hedge ratio of CRIX, which increases significantly during the COVID-19 period. Our findings have implications for risk management, portfolio allocations and hedging strategies.


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