Repercussions of Sustainable Agricultural Productivity, Foreign Direct Investment, Renewable Energy, and Environmental Decay: Recent Evidence from Latin America and the Caribbean

This research aimed to assess and implement the long- and short-run relationship of agriculture and environmental sustainability with control variables. Purposely, this research consolidated theoretical and conceptual principles to create a systematic structure in agriculture for the development of both sectors, i.e., agricultural and the environment. On this ground statement, this research was motivated to contemplate the relationship between carbon dioxide emission, agricultural production, gross domestic product, renewable energy consumption, and foreign direct investment using annual data series of Latin American and Caribbean countries from 1971 to 2018. Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) was used as an econometric methodology to examine the relationship among the variables. Agriculture is the most vulnerable sector in Latin American and Caribbean countries, and the economy is heavily dependent on it. The main results of this research indicated that agriculture and CO2 emissions were positively related to each other for the long and short run, which means that agricultural activities increased the CO2 emission levels. At the same time, the control variables showed mixed associations with environmental degradation as gross domestic product (GDP) was positively significant and renewable energy consumption was negatively significant. The error correction (ECt−1) term was negatively significant, confirming the long-run relationship and the speed of adjustment from short- to long-run equilibrium. Agricultural production and GDP led to increments in CO2 emissions, while renewable energy consumption negatively contributed to toxic emissions. The speed of adjustment in Latin American and Caribbean countries was nippy. It required 2.933 periods for the transformation from the short periodic phase to the long term. A comprehensive approach is the research debate rigorously and holistically based on divergent sectors of an economy and their relationship with environmental sustainability. The econometric method, symbolic system, and conceptual existence were designed originally.

Determinants of Tax Revenue in Sierra Leone: Application of the ARDL Framework

The aim of this paper is to investigate the determinants of tax revenue in Sierra Leone, over the period 1990Q1 to 2020Q1, within the context of the ARDL estimation procedure. The result from the ARDL Bound test for cointegration suggests that a long-run relationship exists among the variables. The long run analysis indicates that real GDP (Y), openness (Op) and official development assistance (ODA) are the main determinants of tax revenue (TR) in Sierra Leone, with positive coefficients. This result is in tandem with the short run findings, which establishes a positive relationship between tax revenue and its regressors- real GDP and openness. However, the short run result also suggests that inflation has a negative impact on tax revenue. The findings confirm that any short-run disequilibrium to the long-run can be corrected at the 11 percent speed of adjustment quarterly, albeit at a low speed of adjustment. The diagnostic result shows that approximately 75 percent of the variation in the dependent variable is explained by the regressors based on the value of the R-squared. It also confirms that the model is free of serial correlation and heteroscedasticity, whilst the CUSUM test indicates stability of the model coefficients. The policy implication is for government to pursue policies that will enhance economic growth, through investment in growth enhancing sectors including agriculture, health, education, energy and infrastructure development; and ensure a politically stable environment as a recipe for private sector investment.

Central Bank Communications and Professional Forecasts: Evidence From India

We analyze the influence of qualitative and quantitative communications of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on inflation expectations of professional forecasters and draw out implications for policy. Estimating Carroll-type epidemiological models of expectation formation under information rigidities, we get a large speed of adjustment of professional forecasters’ expectations. Analysis of the determinants of inflation forecasts, inflation surprises, and forecaster disagreement reveals significant influence of quantitative RBI communications in the form of inflation projections. This effect is prominent for shorter-horizon forecasts and after adoption of flexible inflation targeting. Macroeconomic fundamentals like lagged inflation and repo rate also significantly influence inflation forecasts. Choice of words in the RBI monetary policy statements has more impact after October 2016, when the monetary policy committee became the decision-making body. JEL Classification: E31, E52, E58

The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the dividend target payout ratio. The evidence from Hydrotor SA

Lintner’s (1956) partial adjustment model identifies the company’s long-term dividend policy by setting a dividend target payout ratio and the speed of adjustment. And although the model has undergone various modifications and methods of estimation over more than 60 years, it is still a good tool for analyzing dividend decisions made by companies. The aim of the article is to show the usefulness of the Lintner model for analyzing changes in the company’s dividend policy during the pandemic turmoil. For the illustration, Hydrotor SA was chosen, which, the longest time at the Warsaw Stock Exchange, continuously pays dividends. The calculations showed that the situation in 2020 resulted in a revision of the company’s long-term dividend strategy, which resulted in a lowering of the dividend target payout ratio and a greater attention to the current situation (current net profits)—an increase in the speed of adjustment.

The Causes of Occupational Accidents and Injuries in Romanian Firms: An Application of the Johansen Cointegration and Granger Causality Test

Organizational risks are present in any activity, so it is important to manage them properly. The jobs are dynamic and involve a series of processes and activities. The entire human resource is exposed to several risks. If these risks are approached correctly, the organizational capacity to achieve its objectives and vision will increase considerably. This paper aims to investigate the relationships between work accidents (fatal and non-fatal) and the causes that contribute to their occurrence (causes dependent on the executor, causes dependent on the means of production, workload-dependent causes, and work-dependent causes—the work environment). The augmented Dickey–Fuller (ADF) test is employed to check the data stationarity series, while the Johansen test determines the cointegration relation of variables. The data have been collected from Romanian organizations. The vector error correction model (VECM) and Granger causality test are applied for speed of adjustment, nature, and direction of variables’ relationship. This research demonstrated that both data series are free from the unit-root problem at first difference. The lag length criterions select the third lag for model fitness, and Johansen cointegration declares that variables are cointegrated for the long term. The vector error correction model shows the speed of adjustment from the short to the long run is 83.35% and 42.60% for work and fatal accidents. The study results show that fatal accidents have a series relationship with selected cases for the short run and have a long-run relationship with the means of production. Fatal accidents are directly related to means of production. Fatal accidents are not designed by executors, workload-dependent causes, or work environments in the short run. Fatal accidents are directly related to the means of production and sudden incidents happening in the long run. Fatal accidents are considered by executors, workload-dependent causes, or work environments in the short run. In the long run, fatal accidents are directly related to the means of production and sudden incidents happening.

Price transmission and supply response: the case of Indian small cardamom

Market price volatility, the major challenge faced by the cardamom exporters greatly hinders the investment and destabilizes the earning of small holders. The present study attempted to analyse the price transmission between Indian and international markets and study the supply response of small cardamom to changes in price. The co-movement of prices of small cardamom exist between the Indian and international markets after trade liberalisation and the price transmission has been from the international market to the Indian market. The short-run disequilibrium has been found between the Indian and international prices of cardamom, which got corrected with varying speed of adjustment. The positive and significant elasticity of supply of small cardamom with respect to its own two year lagged price has been established. Crop specific price stabilization mechanism would help to overcome the wide fluctuations in prices of small cardamom.