When The Last Tree Dies, The Last Man Dies: Do Forests Hold The Key To Survival In Ghana? A Critical Analysis Using The Bootstrapped Rolling Window Granger Causality Test Approach

This paper investigates the role of forests in the life expectancy of people in Ghana. We test whether the extinction of forests will inevitably lead to extinction of people in Ghana. We first examined the causal relationship between life expectancy and deforestation using the full sample bootstrap Granger causality test approach and find causality to run from deforestation to life expectancy with no feedback from life expectancy to deforestation. Testing for parameter stability, we found the short run and long run parameters of the estimated Vector Auto Regressive models to be unstable. A time-varying approach, the rolling window bootstrapped Granger causality test was then employed to investigate the causal relationship between life expectancy and deforestation. The results showed that deforestation has a negative effect on life expectancy, confirming the widely accepted saying that the health of forests is inextricably linked to the health of mankind. The empirical results further show that, on trend higher life expectancy increases the rate of deforestation in Ghana. Highlighting the importance of the role of forests in influencing life expectancy in Ghana, we recommend awareness creation on the role of forests in supporting human life and also extensive afforestation programs to reduce the rate of deforestation in Ghana. This, we believe, will reduce the spread of vector borne diseases such as malaria and reduce the surge in respiratory diseases which shorten the life span of Ghanaians.JEL codesQ23, Q50, Q53, Q58, Q58

Time-frequency and Network Analysis of Hippocampus in APP/PS1 Double Transgenic Mice with Dementia of Different Degrees

Hippocampal atrophy and neuron loss are common symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The hippocampal region is well known for producing oscillations at different frequency bands due to the neuronal network architecture. However, the mechanism of Ripple high frequency variation in hippocampal region with the course of AD disease has not been correctly assessed. We proposed time-frequency analysis using wavelet transform and constructing Granger causality network to analyze the characteristics of Hippocampal sharp wave-ripple (SPW-R) complexes in APP/PS1 mice at different cognitive levels. We use wavelet transform to overcome the shortcoming that the traditional Short Time Fourier Transform cannot deal with the unsteady signal frequency, and construct the Granger causality network to verify our results. By analyzing ripple frequency band energy changes and directional transfer function matrix in hippocampal CA1 region of mice with different cognitive levels, we found that the loss of ripple high frequency energy and decreased network connectivity in hippocampal CA1 region of APP/PS1 mice were correlated with the degree of memory loss. We believe that from mild dementia to severe dementia. The decreased cell activity in APP/PS1 mouse CA1 region leads to changes in Ripple high-frequency time-frequency energy and network connectivity for theoretical reasons. Our results provide support for assessing cognitive loss in APP/PS1 mice from the perspective of Ripple high frequency in hippocampus CA1 region.

Exchange rate and Export of Bangladesh: Does Marshall-Lerner condition holds?

Export is expected to have a favorable impact on GDP growth, and the exchange rate is expected to have a major impact on export and thus export earnings. The relationship between exchange rate and export is a hotly debated topic in macroeconomics, and the goal of this research is to see if the Marshall-Lerner condition holds incase of Bangladesh that is if devaluation of domestic currency increase export earnings. Explanatory variables of the model in the study are the exchange rate, foreign income (WGDP), and domestic income (DGDP). Cointegration approaches; Error Correction model, Granger Causality test are used in this study to estimate the long and short-run impacts. With time series data from 1973Q3 to 2018Q2, we used the Error Correction Model and the Granger Causality Test. The findings of VECM support short-run exchange rate and export adjustments. The bidirectional causality between exchange rate and export is established using the Granger causality test.

Policy Insight from Renewable Energy, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Urbanization towards Climate Goal: Insight from Indonesia

This is an expository study towards ascertaining the ability of Indonesia in mitigating carbon emission. Indonesia is positioned as among the best performing economies in Southeast Asia because of its vigorous fiscal management and sustained economic growth over the years. The country’s foreign investment inflow increased to 14% in 2019, largely in gas, electricity, water, and transportation because of the viability of its macroeconomic reforms. To test the environmental implication of this macroeconomic performance of Indonesia and to see its ability to achieve carbon neutrality, we adopt Indonesian quarterly data of 1990Q1- 2018Q4 for empirical analysis. Relevance Instruments in the economic performance of Indonesia such as urbanization, foreign direct investment (FDI) and renewable energy source are all adopted for accurate estimations and analysis of this topic. Different approaches such as structural break test, autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL)-bounds testing and granger causality are all adopted in this study. Our analysis and policy recommendations are based on short run and long run ARDL dynamics and granger causality. Findings from ARDL confirmed, negative relationship between carbon emission and renewable energy source, FDI and urbanization. Also, a U-shape instead of inverted U-shape EKC is found confirming the impeding implication of Indonesian economic growth to its environmental performance if not checkmate. From granger causality analysis, all the variables are seen transmitting to urbanization in a one-way causal relationship. Also, FDI and renewable energy prove to be essential determinants of the country’s environment development, hence, FDI is seen transmitting to both energy source (fossil fuels and renewables) in a one- way causal relationship. Renewable energy is as well seen having two ways causal relationship with both carbon emission and fossil fuels. This result has equally exposed the significant position of the three instruments (urbanization, FDI and renewable energy source) in Indonesia environment development.

Fiscal Policy, Monetary Policy and Price Volatility: Evidence from an Emerging Economy

Vietnam is an Asian emerging country, which now is ranked in the group of the fastest-gro-wing economies worldwide. However, this economy has faced galloping inflation in recent years. So the Vietnamese experience is a valuable reference for the policymakers in the developing world in order to successfully control price volatility. Our study applies the Vector autoregressive method, the Johansen cointegration test, and the Granger causality test to examine the impact of fiscal and monetary policy on price volatility in Vietnam with a quarterly data sample collected over the period from 2004 to 2018. The study results confirm the existence of a long-term cointegration relationship between these policies and price volatility in Vietnam. Besides, the variance decomposition and impulse response function also show that the impact of these policies on inflation is clear, however, the fiscal policy more strongly affects inflation than the monetary policy. Finally, the Granger causality test also indicates one-way causality relationships from the government expenditure as well as the exchange rate to price volatility in the study period.

Covid-19 Cases Growth and Business Continuity in Indonesia: A Causality Test

The objective of this study is to examine the causality between Covid-19 cases growth and business continuity in Indonesia, thus can be formulated the post-Covid business strategies. The Covid-19 cases are modeled into ‘daily case’ and ‘active case’, while business continuity proxied with human mobility to grocery and pharmacy, also to retail and recreation. Using daily data ranging from March to December 2020, the Granger causality results show that there is a bidirectional causality between daily case and grocery-pharmacy business, whereas interestingly there is a unidirectional relationship from retail-recreation business to daily case. In active case model, author found a unidirectional causality from active case to both grocery-pharmacy and retail-recreation business. This research may be used to improve business strategy in order to maintain the business life during the Covid-19 Pandemic in Indonesia.