Is Carbon Decoupling Likely to Happen in Africa: Evidence from Production and Consumption-Based Carbon Emissions

Background Decoupling is a green growth concept suggested as a means to achieve economic growth without or with less environmental risks. Despite extensive empirical studies made on decoupling between emissions and growth, the existing evidence is quite mixed and inconclusive. On top of that, the vast majority of studies considered emissions generated at the point of production alone which do not explicitly account for emissions associated with international trade. Accordingly, this study examines the issue of decoupling between carbon emissions and economic growth in 25 African countries over 1990-2017, considering both production and consumption-based CO2 emissions. Results The results from decoupling method and panel data estimation techniques invariably indicate some evidence of relative decoupling for production-based emissions, but no robust evidence of decoupling for consumption-related emissions. Primary energy intensity and population are found as the main drivers of carbon emissions in Africa. Further, exports and imports have insignificant effects on territorial emissions, but significant and offsetting effects on consumption-based emissions. Conclusion The main conclusion of the study is to incorporate emissions generated from consumption activities in emissions-growth linkage as production-related emissions alone would evidently be insufficient for decarbonizing economic growth. The study also suggests that climate policy measures in Africa are not fully-effective in mitigating carbon emissions and hence the need for enforcing active policy interventions and consumption-related emissions regulation in particular.

Is Carbon Decoupling Likely to Happen in Africa: Evidence From Production and Consumption-based Carbon Emissions

Despite extensive studies made on decoupling between emissions and growth, evidences have shown no uniformity and vast majority of studies considered emissions generated at the point of production alone which do not explicitly account for emissions associated with international trade. Accordingly, this study examines the issue of decoupling between economic growth and carbon emissions in 25 African countries over 1990-2017, considering both production and consumption-based CO2emissions. Different panel data estimation techniques which allow for cross-sectional dependence, heterogeneity,endogeneity and serial-correlation issues are applied for empirical analysis.The study results invariably indicate some evidence of relative decoupling for production-based emissions, but no robust evidence of decoupling for consumption-related emissions. Primary energy intensity and population are found as the main driversof carbon emissions in Africa. Further, exports and imports have insignificant effects on territorial emissions, but significant and offsettingeffects on consumption-based emissions. After all, this study suggests toincorporate emissions generated fromconsumption activities in emissions-growth linkage as production-related emissionsalone would evidently be insufficient for decarbonizing economic growth.

Remittances and Economic Growth Tie in Selected South Asian Countries: A Panel Data Analysis

Remittances are regarded one of the foremost financial resources globally. Over the past century, in the developing economy, there is a heated debate on the sources of economic growth. The current paper attempts to analyze how economic growth is being impacted by remittance in five selected South Asian countries between the period 1975 and 2017. Estimated results from panel-data estimation techniques exhibit a positive relation between economic growth and remittance in these countries. The results from Granger-causality tests suggest that remittance plays a catalyst role to bring economic growth but economic growth doesn’t play any role to bring remittance while Dumitrescu Hurlin Causality tests found a bi-directional relationship. Important finding of the study is that remittance boost economic growth in South Asian region.

Bank stability in South Africa: what matters?

The study examined the determinants of bank stability within the South African banking sector. By controlling for individual bank characteristics and market characteristics, the study determined possible determinants of solvency, a proxy for bank stability, measured by z-score within the South African financial sector. The South African financial sector is highly concentrated but with a significantly large number of banks, the greater portion being foreign owned banks. The business models of some of the financial intermediaries differ from the big four and therefore the influence of the type of business model is of great interest in this study, as it highlights a unique feature of the South African financial sector. The study’s investigation used panel data estimation techniques and found that among the specific bank characteristics, lending activity and capitalization do significantly affect solvency of banks and at sector level concentration was significant. The crisis dummy also revealed that the presence of a financial crisis heightened insolvency. The results have implications for financial institutions and therefore are of interest to regulators, bank management and researchers. Policy prescription in the form of Prompt Corrective Action framework is made to ensure proactive reaction to trends likely to cause instability.

ДЕТЕРМИНАНТЕ ПРОФИТАБИЛНОСТИ МАЛИХ И СРЕДЊИХ ПРЕДУЗЕЋА У СЕКТОРУ ТРГОВИНЕ У СРБИЈИ

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of profitability for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the wholesale and retail sector in the Republic of Serbia. The wholesale and retail sector is a very important sector for Serbian economy, and also one of the most profitable sectors. The research of determinants of profitability includes two phases. First, the differences between the profitability of SMEs and large enterprises were conducted using the Student t-test. Second, the panel data estimation techniques were used to detect determinants of firm profitability. The profitability measure is based on the return on assets, and the determinants of profitability were defined as follows: size, leverage, liquidity, tangibility, investment, sales growth and lagged profitability. The data was collected from the financial statement of enterprises. For this purpose, 9,005 observations of 1,801 SMEs and 1,605 observations of 321 large trade companies over the period of 2010-2014 were included. The results indicate that SMEs achieve statistically significant better profitability than large wholesale and retail companies. The findings indicate that leverage, liquidity, sales growth and lagged profitability positively influence the profitability of SMEs. Furthermore, the results show an inverse relationship between the size and tangibility on one side and profitability on the other side.

Infrastructure and Tourism Development

Infrastructure is not the engine but the wheels of economic development. Since the onset of economic crisis, followed by economic reforms, the importance of infrastructure development has been emphasised through policy, pronouncements, higher budgetary allocation of funds, formation of Infrastructure development, etc. It opens out a region by providing an access to its tourist places. In its absence, the resource potential for tourism can't be of any benefit. In addition to the common infrastructure tourism development requires special infrastructures, which is growing importance to India and foreign tourists in recent years. This chapter tries to investigate the significance of infrastructure as a factor in tourism development by applying panel data estimation techniques upon 27 Indian States for the period 2005-2015 and finds that the infrastructure has been contributing positively to tourist arrivals, particularly from India and abroad. Apart from this we have also shown that tourist arrivals from host along with infrastructure expenditure will affect Indian tourism in a positive manner.

Corporate governance in Malaysia: has MCCG made a difference

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (MCCG) on the performance of the listed companies in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach Panel data estimation techniques were used to run the regression in this study, following Baltagi (1995). The authors have selected 116 listed companies to Bursa Malaysia during the period 1996-2014, to study the effect of corporate governance on firm performance. Listed companies in Malaysia are mandatory to comply with MCCG rules and regulations. Findings It was found that there was a significant improvement in the performance of listed companies after Malaysian Government’s implementation of MCCG (2000) which means that MCCG matters for firm performance in Malaysia. It was also found that there was no significance difference in the overall impact of implementation of MCCG on performance level between government-linked companies (GLCs) and private companies (PCs). Research limitations/implications The authors have selected only 116 listed companies to Bursa Malaysia during the period 1996-2014, to study the effect of corporate governance on firm performance. The selection of the data was based on the availability of data in Thomson data stream. Originality/value The findings had contributed to the understanding that the MCCG has improved significantly the performance of listed companies in Malaysia.

Explaining Tourism Inflows in Greece: A Macroeconometric Approach

This paper investigates the determinants of tourism inflows to Greece. The significance of the specific sector for the Greek economy varies from 15% to 20% of GDP (measured directly or indirectly respectively). Building on the existing literature, panel data estimation techniques are used, with explanatory variables including selected macroeconomic indicators and (relative) price indices. The main innovation of the paper is that, regarding the cross section dimension of the sample, disaggregated data based on the country (or area) of origin are used, combined with the corresponding macroeconomic aggregates. The time-span of the data is the 2004-2010 period, with the specific econometric techniques used taking into account both the statistical properties of variables and the differences between the various cross sections. The main conclusion of the paper is that the macroeconometric approach to explaining tourist arrivals provides a very satisfactory model fit, with explanatory variables explaining a significant part of the variability of the dependent variable.

Performance of government linked companies and private owned companies in Malaysia

Purpose – The purpose of this study was to find whether there was any significant difference in performance between government-linked companies (GLCs) and private-owned companies (POCs) and there was any significant improvement in performance of GLCs after Malaysian Government ' s initiatives to transform the GLCs to high-performance companies. Design/methodology/approach – Panel data estimation techniques were used to run the regression in this study. Findings – It was found that there was no significant difference in performance level between GLCs and POCs. It was also found that the performance level of GLCs had improved significantly after the initiation of GLCs ' transformation programme by the Malaysian Government. Originality/value – The implication of the results of this study is that state-owned enterprises in developing countries like Malaysia can be relevant and important to take care of social responsibilities and needs, as also they can perform at par with private companies. There is no need for privatization of government-owned enterprises; rather, it needs corporatization. Government-owned enterprises can play an important role to drive national development.

Arab Trade Dynamics after the Implementation of the Pan Arab Free Trade Area (1998–2012)

With the entry into force of the Pan Arab Free Trade Area (PAFTA) in 2005, intra-Arab trade became tariff free, completing the trade liberalization process started in 1998. Making use of data covering the 1998–2012 period, we estimate the impact of PAFTA on intra-Arab trade in manufactured goods using a gravity model and applying panel data estimation techniques. Results suggest that PAFTA has increased intra-members’ trade by nearly 20 %. We also examine potential changes in the trends of Arab countries’ imports of manufactured goods from their main providers after the entry into force of PAFTA. In this respect, there is some evidence of an increase in Arab countries’ imports from Asia from 2005 onwards, in relation to the 1998–2004 period.