In this article, using a novel, annual cross‐country panel dataset that covers 160 economies from 1950 to 2016, we examine the association between the size of the informal sector and various indicators of sustainable development. The range of indicators encompasses health‐related, economic, environmental, education, and social variables. Our results suggest that the size of the informal sector is negatively associated with GDP per capita, carbon dioxide emissions per capita, education, educational attainment, life expectancy, and access to safe drinking water, and positively related to female labor force participation rate, poverty rates, mortality rates, and air pollution. We also find that these empirical associations significantly interact with GDP per capita, indicating that the effect of larger informal sector size is stronger in less developed economies.

The economic crisis of the eurozone emerged after the subprime mortgage crisis of the US; and since then the fiscal profligacy of some member countries, primarily Greece at the outset, was seen as the root of the crisis. However, alternative approaches pointed to the current-account imbalances within the eurozone, and the flaws in the architecture of the eurozone system. In this study, based on the argument that these flaws and resulting trade imbalances had been responsible for a credit-fueled asset-price speculation among deficit countries, we aim to establish empirically the close association of asset-price growth with credit creation. As imbalances continued, asset prices grew dependent on credit expansion, and once it was disrupted, the collapse came. For our purpose, we examine the impacts of credit expansion on asset prices and use dynamic panel estimations for eleven countries in the eurozone over the period 1990–2011. We find that the credit expansion and asset prices are closely associated in countries with chronic trade deficits whereas no significant correlation is observed for countries with trade surpluses.

In this article, we construct an empirical framework to identify and measure the adoption of green technologies across countries. Using an annual dataset covering 89 countries from 1990 to 2016, we conduct a principal component analysis incorporating the different dimensions of the adoption of green technologies. The analysis allows us both to rank countries for their level of green technology adoption and also recommend policies to improve their current stance.

By considering the manufacturing pay inequality index as a proxy for overall income inequality and a novel index for the informal economy, this study analyzes the relationship between income inequality and the size of the informal economy in Turkey for the first time during the period of 1963-2008. For this purpose, we employ a time-series analysis with the Johansen cointegration test, a vector error correction model and the Granger causality tests. The findings suggest that while an increase in income inequality and foreign trade competitiveness leads to an expansion of the informal sector, unemployment has negative effects on the informal sector.