Investigating the potential role of innovation and clean energy in mitigating the ecological footprint in N11 countries

This paper seeks to explore the potential function of technological innovation and clean power in mitigating the ecological footprint in the N-11 nations during the phase 1992–2015 by applying panel cointegration analysis. The outcomes of the panel cointegration test signify the occurrence of a long-run relation among the clean energy (CE) variable, the ecological footprint (EF) variable, the per capita GDP (Y) variable, the financial development (FIN) variable, and technological innovation (TI) variable. The outcomes of the VECM signify a long-run causal relation from the ecological footprint (EF) variable to the clean energy (CE) variable, the GDP per capita (Y) variable, and technological innovation (TI) variable. This implies that the environmental degradation faced by the N-11 countries leads to shifting toward clean energy sources and technological innovation in the long run. Thus, the N-11 countries are in need to design policies that enhance shifting toward environmentally friendly energy sources.

A validity of environmental Kuznets curve under the role of urbanization, financial development index and foreign direct investment in Pakistan

PurposeThis research aims to inspect the existence of the “environmental Kuznets curve” (EKC) in the presence of foreign direct investment (FDI), financial development (FD) and urbanization throughout 1972–2018 for Pakistan.Design/methodology/approachFor time series analysis, Phillips and Perron (PP) and Augmented Dickey–Fuller (ADF) unit root tests are used to confirm the level of integration. For robustness, Kim and Perron (2009)’s structural break unit root test is employed, which identifies the order of integration in the presence of structural break years. Further, combined cointegration analysis is performed to confirm the existence of a long-run association between underlying variables. Furthermore, autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) analysis is employed for the robustness of the cointegration approach.FindingsThe cointegration analysis confirms the existence of a long-run association among variables. The authors find a positive and significant impact of urbanization, FD and foreign development on environmental degradation in the long run. Similarly, only FDI increases environmental degradation in the short run. In addition, the authors find an inverted U-shape relationship between economic growth and environmental quality which, further, confirms the presence of EKC in Pakistan.Originality/valueThis research contributes to applied economics in many ways: the combined effect of urbanization, FD, FDI and economic growth on carbon dioxide (CO2) emission is checked simultaneously. To avoid ambiguity, this study constructs the FD index through the principal component analysis (PCA). Moreover, the role of structural breaks has been considered through the analysis. Novel Bayer-Hanck combined cointegration analysis is employed to detect the existence of long-run relationships among underlying variables.

How the Income Elasticity of Meat Consumption differs between social groups? A case of the UK and the Czech Republic

The purpose of the article is to show different consumer behaviour between ten different income levels (deciles) and different countries and to examine the elasticity distance between income deciles in the UK (a high-income country) and the Czech Republic (a low-income country) within the context of meat consumption. The official statistic services provided data in the Czech Republic (Czech Statistical Office, 2020) and the UK (Office for National Statistics, 2020). Data on the Czech Republic come from the household budget surveys (HBS). In contrast, corresponding data on UK consumers was drawn from the Living Costs and Food survey, which succeeded the National food survey and household expenditure survey. Both sets of data were set according to households’ structure from the EU-SILC Survey (national module of the European Union – Statistics on Income and Living Conditions). To estimate the income elasticity of meat in the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom in different consumer income groups, a time series cointegration analysis was applied to analyse the annual data for 2000-2017. The Törnquist equation and the difference between income elasticity in monetary and natural expression show saturation and preference of high quality meat in the higher-income consumers in the UK than the same groups in the Czech Republic and overall increasing demand for quality in other income groups. The results support the theory of nutrition transitions. The value of the research is that it would enable the exploration of the potential impact and nature of fiscal interventions for improving diets whilst enabling food producers to forecast meat consumption within the different customer segments.

The Effects of Environmental Tax On Ecological Footprint and Carbon Dioxide Emissions: a Nonlinear Cointegration Analysis On Turkey

This article presents a nonlinear analysis in Turkey on the effect of an environmental tax (ET) on the ecological footprint (EF) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. In the literature, most of the studies examining the effects of Environmental Taxes (ETs) on Environmental Degradation (ED) have used linear methods. The number of studies examining this relationship with nonlinear methods is few. However, there is no study examining the long-run effects of ETs on the EF, which is one of the most important indicators of ED, using nonlinear analysis. This study contributes to the literature by investigating the long-run effects of ETs on EF and CO2 emissions in Turkey by nonlinear analysis. Therefore, the model consisting of annual data for the period 1994–2019 was estimated by Dufrénot et al. (2006) nonlinear cointegration test. According to the estimation results obtained, ETs do not have any long-run effects on EF and CO2 emissions. Accordingly, it can be concluded that ETs in Turkey do not affect preventing ED.

Time-Gap effects of crude oil prices on the foreign exchange rates: Evidence from Nigeria

There is a pool of techniques and methods in addressing dynamics behaviors in higher frequency data, prominent among them is the ARCH/GARCH techniques. In this paper, the various types and assumptions of the ARCH/GARCH models were tried in examining the dynamism of exchange rate and international crude oil prices in Nigeria. And it was observed that the Nigerian foreign exchange rates behaviors did not conform with the assumptions of the ARCH/GARCH models, hence this paper adopted Lag Variables Autoregressive (LVAR) techniques originally developed by Agung and Heij multiplier to examine the dynamic response of the Nigerian foreign exchange rates to crude oil prices. The Heij coefficient was used to calculate the dynamic multipliers while the Engel & Granger two-step technique was used for cointegration analysis. The results revealed an insignificant dynamic long-term response of the exchange rate to crude oil prices within the periods under review. The coefficient of dynamism was insignificantly in most cases of the sub-periods. The paper equally revealed that the significance of the dynamic multipliers depends greatly on external information about both market indicators which are two-way interactions. Thus, the paper recommends periodic intervention in the foreign exchange market by the monetary authorities to stabilize the market against any shocks in the international crude oil market, since crude oil is the main source of foreign exchange in Nigeria.

Can gold hedge against inflation in the UAE? A nonlinear ARDL analysis in the presence of structural breaks

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the role of gold as a hedge against inflation in the case of the United Arab Emirates.Design/methodology/approachThe study utilizes monthly data on the local sharia-compliant spot gold contract traded on the Dubai Gold and Commodity Exchange (DGCX) and the corresponding consumer price index series over the period December 2015 to January 2021. The econometric approach employed by the study involves a unit root testing procedure that allows the timing of significant breaks to be estimated. A cointegration analysis is then conducted using a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model, taking into consideration the presence of structural breaks in addition to short- and long-run asymmetries.FindingsThe results reveal that consumer and gold prices are cointegrated, which implies that investing in gold can hedge against inflation in the long run. No sufficient evidence, nonetheless, is found in support of the ability of gold to serve as a hedge against inflation in the short run.Originality/valueThe findings have several important policy implications for policymakers and investors that are further discussed in the study.

Synergy between sectoral output, energy and CO2 emission: a panel cointegration analysis of South Asia

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the synergy between sectoral output, energy use and CO2 emission with other factors for a panel of South Asian economies including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Pakistan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Design/methodology/approach The analysis is done using annual panel data from 1980–2019 using dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS), fully modified OLS (FMOLS) and Toda-Yamamoto techniques. Findings Empirical findings reveal the existence of a statistically significant long-run cointegrating relationship between energy use, sectoral output such as agricultural, industry and service gross domestic product (GDP), globalization, urbanization and CO2 emission. DOLS and FMOLS result posits that in the case of the South Asian region agriculture GDP does not contribute to increasing CO2 emission while service and industrial GDP is responsible for increasing CO2 emission along with urban population, energy use and to some extent globalization. More remarkably, the contribution of the service GDP is greater than the other two sectoral outputs in increasing CO2 emission with a feedback hypothesis. Practical implications As CO2 emission is a global phenomenon with a cross-boundary effect, these empirical findings might contribute to formulating implementable energy and environmental policies to sustain growth, as well as to protect the environment in the regional context. Originality/value The study contributes to the literature by providing an empirical investigation of South Asia incorporating the contribution of sectoral output to understand the potential contribution of each sector on energy and emission. This is the first study on the South Asian context from the perspective of sectoral output, energy and emission.

Fundamental Responsiveness in European Electricity Prices

We estimate fundamental pricing relationships in selected European day-ahead electricity markets. Using a fractionally integrated panel data model with unobserved common effects, we quantify the responsiveness of hourly electricity prices to two fundamental leading indicators of day-ahead markets: the predicted load and renewable generation. The application of fractional cointegration analysis techniques gives further insight into the pricing mechanism of power delivery contracts, enabling us to measure the persistence of fundamental shocks.