For decades, renewable energy consumption has been presented as the ultimate solution to reduce pollutant gas emissions. However, their production, marketing, and, above all, consumption are not entirely climate neutral, so society needs new practices, such as circular energy, to achieve a more efficient energy transition (Khan et al., 2021a; Khan et al., 2021d). This study aims at exploring the effects of energy intensity, renewable energy consumption and forestation on CO2 emissions for developed and developing countries. Owing to cross-country income disparity, the data were categorized into four distinct groups: lower, lower-middle, upper-middle, and high-income over the period of 1980–2018. The Pedroni and Fisher-Johnson estimators of pooled data are employed for determining the plausible presence of a long-run co-integrating relationship between model variables. For all four country groups, Pedroni cointegration testing results reveal a significant long-run association between CO2 emission and its determinants. However, the Fisher-Johansen estimator yield mixed results, with low- and lower-middle income country groups outperforming the other two groups. However, the magnitude of this long-run association is less substantial, particularly in case of renewable energy consumption and forestation. For all country groups, energy intensity turns out to be the most influential long-run determinant of CO2 emissions, holding a positive coefficient value ranging from 0.30 to 1.31. Renewable energy consumption is the second most important long-run determinant of CO2 emissions. In case of forestation, the series imparts (statistically) significant long-run effects only for lower-middle-income countries. The overall results back the idea of curtailing the existing levels of energy intensity and encouraging the exploration and the use of renewable energy sources as a policy tool against controlling the prevalent situation of carbon-based emissions in our subject group of countries.
This paper proposes a new variant and reinvestigates the validity of the Balassa–Samuelson (BS) hypothesis for nine East and South Asian countries under new specifications. The BS hypothesis is often criticized for one of its fundamental, but oversimplified assumptions related to Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) holding which can be confirmed for cronss-country tradables’ prices, implying nontraded-sector prices are solely responsible for inducing trend deviations in real exchange rate. The assumption, when empirically tested, does not always hold valid, revealing a price difference in tradables for Asian countries against the world (U.S.), a potential driver of their trend in real exchange rate deviations (appreciation). A new approach based on Fully Modified OLS (FMOLS) and Dynamic OLS (DOLS) is used to estimate the long-run BS coefficients, while the error correction mechanism is employed to estimate the short-run estimates. These results motivated us to allow for the inexistence of PPP for cross-country tradables; the standard form of the BS model is then tested in its relaxed form using time-series and panel data econometric tests. Despite a relaxing of the BS model in favor of tradables’ price deviation from PPP, the results are not sufficiently supportive of the BS hypothesis. These findings hold strong economic implications for Asia, suggesting that intercountry sectoral productivity bias of regional economies with the world does not necessarily exert substantial effects on their long-run real exchange rates. Additionally, contrary to the core belief of the BS model, intercountry tradables’ price differentials are found to substantially explain real exchange rate movements away from their long-run equilibrium.
The paper is an empirical exploration around the commercial banks’ interest spread and the profitability performance for Pakistani banking industry. Earlier studies have evidently proven the sensitivity of commercial banks financial performance towards the gap between their deposit rate and the lending rate. The present study therefore aims at validating (invalidating) the subject relationship using advance time-series econometric procedures. The study attempts to yield a robust statistical analysis since three different measures of banks’ profitability are employed for the purpose of econometric testing i.e. return on assets, return on equity and earnings per share. The study sample comprises seven major participants from commercial banking sector of Pakistan and the sample study period rangers from year 2002 to 2018. From the series of robust regression models, Newey-West Hetroskedasticity and Autocorrelation Consistent (HAC) estimator is used to test the hypothesized relationship. Valid statistical support is yielded in case of all three measures of profitability; however, return on assets as indicator of profitability receives highest amount of statistical support. The results hold strong policy implications for commercial banking sector of the country, calling for wise management decisions whilst deciding the deposit and the lending and rates since they are key to determining the interest spread observed by a bank which in return determines its profitability margins.
Anaemia is the most common and prevalent maternal health issue in developing countries. It is a global challenge, not only for poorer populations of the world but also for developed countries. South Asia is part of the developing world and is severely affected by the problem of anaemia in pregnant women. The region also stands out in the pervasiveness of child marriages; in fact, it accounts for about half of the total child marriages occurring globally. The high incidence stems from socio-economic misery, prevalent in the form of gender inequality, male-dominated family culture, orthodox ethnic norms and inaccessibility to information on reproductive health. Unlike earlier studies which sought evidence more from cross-sectional data sets, this study investigates the explanatory power of adolescent fertility and low health expenditure on exceptionally high rates of anaemic pregnancies using modern econometric techniques with longer data sets comprising national aggregates. The results strongly suggest that for seven regional states, the proposed relationship holds valid. The robustness of short-run individual country estimates is challenged by testing the relationship through modern long-run pooled data estimators. The results are reasonably encouraging, recognizing the significant role of adolescent fertility and low levels of health spending, thus determining trend patterns of anaemic pregnancies region-wide.
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