Corruption – Poverty Nexus: Evidence from Panel ARDL Approach for SAARC Countries

The article intends to investigate the relationship between corruption and poverty based on the panel data of SAARC countries over the period 1996–2019. We employed the panel ARDL of pooled mean group (PMG) technique to analyze the data and focus on capability poverty, using the human development index (HDI) as a proxy for poverty. The empirical findings of PMG of the ARDL model suggest that an increase in corruption score (COC) (i.e. decrease in corruption) and increase in women’s labor force participation rate (WLFPR) seem to have a significant impact either in eradicating poverty or increasing social welfare in the long run as well as in the short run. A random effect (RE) model also identified a significant positive relationship between corruption score and HDI, and WLFPR and HDI. A Dumitrescu-Hurlin pairwise panel Granger non-causality test detected a bilateral causality relationship between COC and HDI, and WLFPR and HDI, while unilateral causality ran from WLFPR to COC. The article contributes to examining the dynamics between corruption and poverty from the governance aspect, taking South Asia as a case study.

The Risk-Taking Behaviour of Tunisian Banks in the Post-Revolution Era: A Panel ARDL-PMG Approach

This study investigates the long-term determinants of capital buffers and risk-taking adjustment by focusing on a sample of listed Tunisian commercial banks. This research uses hand-collected semi-annual data. The panel autoregressive distributed lags technique is used to control for unit root processes and to check for long-term determinants of capital and risk-taking adjustment. The empirical findings prove the existence of a moral hazard and procyclical behaviour of Tunisian banks in response to capital requirements. However, some results indicate that capital standards are still an important prudential tool for ensuring the robustness of Tunisian banks. There have been no previous studies focusing on this issue in the context of the Tunisian banking system in the turbulent post-revolution era. This paper innovates by assuming that a set of bank-specific, macroeconomic and regulatory variables exert a long-term rather than a short-term influence on capital buffers and risk-taking. The research does not consider a possible long-term simultaneous relationship between capital and risk-taking. The sample could be extended if data were available. Tunisian banks are advised to diversify their sources of revenues and to thoroughly revise their business models in order to become less dependent on revenues from traditional intermediation activities and to reduce the procyclicality of the banking system.

Business Cycles and Alcohol Consumption: Evidence from a Nonlinear Panel ARDL Approach

This study revisits the relationship between economic variables and alcohol consumption from a macro perspective. Focusing explicitly on the asymmetries of the responsiveness of alcohol consumption during the expansion and contraction phases of the business cycle, asymmetric panel estimators are employed. We employ a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model for a panel of 24 countries for the period 1961 to 2014. Findings show that expansion leads to a long-term increase in average alcohol consumption, while during contraction, the level of average alcohol consumption persists. Expansion, together with a pronounced reduction in the unemployment rate could, however, lead to a net reduction of gross alcohol and wine consumption. Nonetheless, if the recession corresponds with a surge in unemployment, this leads to a long-run increase in the level of total gross alcohol consumption but a decrease in wine and beer consumption. Reduction in unemployment does not lead to a reduction in beer consumption, as pre-expansion levels of beer consumption persist. (JEL Classifications: E32, I19, L66)

Tourism Demand Elasticities by Income and Prices of International Market Regions: Evidence Using Vietnam’s Data

This study aims to determine tourism demand elasticities by income and prices of regions, as well as total international markets. It is deployed to a total of 10 major source markets and two separate regions, from Asia and intercontinental to Vietnam. The results of data analysis for the period 1995–2019 and using a nonlinear panel ARDL approach show that tourism demand from major Asian markets to Vietnam is strongly income elastic, but tourism demand from major intercontinental markets to Vietnam is relatively price inelastic. Tourism demand in intercontinental markets is less elastic to price, but in Asian markets it is quite price sensitive, especially own price elasticities. In addition, different effects of income and prices are found in most of the major markets. Study results have provided useful insights into different types of tourism goods and price sensitivity between market regions, as well as the degree of substitute destinations.

Does Technological Innovation Advance Environmental Sustainability in ASEAN Countries?

Environment degradation is a very important issue in developing nations and a lot of research had done to examine the factors of environmental degradation but these studies were missed some important factors which are covered by this study. By examining the effect of economic growth and energy in the presence of renewable energy consumption and technology innovation on environment degradation for ASEAN nations. Panel ARDL (which is PMG and MG) is used to estimate the model, and the advantage of this model is it gives both the long and short-run estimates of the model which helps to understand the situation in both short as well as long run. The results confirm that economic growth, Population, trade, and renewable energy increase the carbon emission level in ASEAN nations. While technology innovation decreased carbon emission levels which means technology innovation helps to keep the environment healthy and clean. Hence, economic growth helps the nations to improve their energy mode from non-renewable to renewable energy, which meets the energy demand by keeping the environment clean.

ICT Adoption and Stock Market Development in Africa: An Application of the Panel ARDL Bounds Testing Procedure

The nexus between Information Communication Technology (ICT) and stock market development has been predominantly based on studies of the developed markets and high-income economies of the world. The objective of this study was to examine the causal relationship between ICT adoption and stock market development in Africa. The study examined a panel of 11 African stock exchanges for the period 2008–2017 and employed the panel ARDL bounds testing procedure to test for cointegration and examine the causal relationship between ICT adoption and stock market development. The dependent variable employed was the stock market development index (FINDEX), while the independent variable was the ICT adoption index (ICTDEX), and the financial freedom index (FFI) was employed as a control variable. Firstly, the results of the study documented that the variables are cointegrated in the long term. Secondly, the results of the study documented a bi-directional causal relationship (complementarity) between ICT adoption and stock market development. In essence, ICT adoption and stock market development reinforce each other. Thirdly, the study established a causal relationship running from financial freedom to stock market development. This lends credence to the notion that financial market deregulation promotes stock market development. Lastly, a positive causal relationship that ran from financial freedom to stock market development was documented. This study contributes to the body of knowledge in the sense that it is the first study to examine the phenomenon of the ICT–stock market development nexus by employing a panel study. Hitherto, studies were mainly country-specific in nature. The findings of the research imply that policymakers should be more resolute when formulating ICT policies, as ICT adoption can drive stock market development and vice versa for better economic growth. Policymakers should embrace policies that support the deregulation of stock markets as this will lead to the development of the latter.

Asymmetric effect of financial development and remittance on economic growth in MINT economies: an application of panel NARDL

The empirical analysis examines the asymmetric effect of financial development and remittance on economic growth in MINT nations (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Turkey). The present study utilized panel data covering the period from 1980 to 2019. The research objectives are to address the questions: (a) Is there a long-run association between economic growth and the regressors? (b) Do financial development and remittance trigger MINT nations' economic growth? Moreover, the present study applied both linear panel ARDL and the novel panel nonlinear ARDL to capture the asymmetric impact of development and remittance on economic growth. The outcomes of the linear ARDL disclosed that both financial development and remittance triggers economic growth positively. Furthermore, the outcomes of the NARDL disclosed that both positive and negative shocks in financial development increase economic growth. In addition, a positive and negative shock in remittance increases economic growth in the long-run.