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In this study, we examine the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on global economic activity, the stock market, and the energy sector considering the sizable damaging impacts in these crucial aspects. Our results, based on the structural vector autoregression (SVAR) model for the data from 21 January 2020, to 26 February 2021, indicate that the COVID-19 cases significantly and negatively impact all the endogenous variables such as Baltic dry index (BDI), MSCI world index (MSCI), and MSCI world energy index (MSCIE). Our results also reveal that of the three variables, the stock markets indices (MSCI and MSCIE) are comparatively more affected by COVID-19 cases. The findings imply that the stock markets are more sensitive to the COVID-19 pandemic than the real economy. The results further indicate that of the three variables, the MSCIE index is the most affected by COVID-19 due to two factors: one is the dwindling power consumption caused by COVID-19 and the other is the decline in oil price because of the Russia–OPEC price war. Our findings enhance the understanding of the spillover impacts of the global health crisis on economic activity, the stock market, and the energy sector. Moreover, our study offers insights for policymakers and governments into the relationship dynamics of COVID-19 that would help them be more cautious in taking preventive measures against the health crisis to save the economy, the stock market, and the energy sector from falling into a more deepened crisis.

With the rapid global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers from diverse fields of study have contributed markedly in different research aspects. Considering the substantial economic significance of the pandemic at the micro and macro level throughout the world, we review the scientific publications in the discipline of Economics. To draw a broad inference, we analyze a total of 1,636 scientific publications starting from 1974, which covers the period of earlier pandemics or epidemics that have a close association with COVID-19 using bibliometric analysis. Our analysis and mapping reveal key information related to the contributors at different levels, including author, institution, country, and publication sources. Besides, we identify the historical concentration of research using scientific clustering and illustrate transformations at different times. Moreover, recognizing the underlying inadequacy of economics research, we propose several areas of future research. Our findings and suggestions are expected to act as a roadmap to potential research opportunities and notable implications for business and policymakers.

This study examines the relationship between energy consumption, financial development and economic growth for ASEAN-5 countries, namely Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, over the period from 1980 to 2017. Finance-growth and energy-growth relationships have been well researched; however, the energy-finance-growth nexus is an equally important but less explored area. Our Auto Regressive Distributed Lags (ARDL) bounds test for cointegration results suggests that the variables tend to move together in the long run for all countries, apart from Indonesia. Our study also considers the effect of a structural break due to financial crisis and confirms that the break does not affect the long-term relationship among the variables; in other words, the financial crisis does not affect the energy-finance-growth nexus. Hence, considering the consistency of energy consumption, the importance of the energy sector must not be undermined, and appropriate energy policies are instrumental in maintaining a well-managed financial sector for sustainable economic growth.Sustainability 2020, 12, 5 2 of 16 demand [15], while the importance of financial variables in investigatng the energy-growth nexus is well documented by [16]. Financial development indicates the actual level of financial resources available for production and channels these funds through banks and stock markets [17]; thus, this promotes economic growth by boosting investment via transparent transactions for productive ventures [15]. A higher level of economic development through raising the capacity of the production sector and attracting foreign investment requires a stable power supply, which necessitates support by the financial sector through channeling resources to the energy sector [18]. A well-developed financial market makes financial resources available to high-return projects; at the same time, this implies better accounting and reporting standards, which increases investors' confidence [19], and attracts Foreign Direct Investment(FDI) [7]; which in turnaffects energy consumption. Similarly, financial development increases energy consumption by enhancing liquidity through the allocation of assets to appropriate ventures [15]. Hence, financial development affects the growth of an economy, which may influence energy consumption [20], and consequently, can act as the missing link in the energy-growth nexus [5]. With the growth in the economy, more productive inputs are needed which are supported by activities such as capital accumulation and energy expenditure where the role of finance is undisputable [21].However, to date, the nature of the relationship remains inconclusive from the relatively small amount of prevailing literature. Some researchers have found a negative relationship between energy consumption and financial development [22], while others detect a positive relationship [13,23]. Similarly, the results of the cointegration and causality analysis-based studies are also inconclusive. Several studies reported bidirectional ...

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