Financial inclusion and environmental sustainability in Ghana: application of the dynamic ARDL estimator

Drivers of food security in West Africa: Insight from heterogeneous panel data analysis on income-level classification

This paper investigates the factors driving food security in West African countries. Specifically, it examines the impact of natural resource rents, institutional quality, and climate change on food security while controlling for industrialization and economic growth. Our research is motivated by the urgent need for swift policy action to address the escalating food crisis in the region and prevent any potential catastrophic consequences. Second-generation econometric techniques are utilized for accurate and reliable outcomes based on yearly datasets from West African countries from 2000 to 2020, and the countries are sub-grouped into low-income and lower-middle-income. The findings unveil the panel as heterogeneous and cross-sectionally based, and all the study variables are first differenced stationary and co-integrated in the long run. Hence, the Augmented Mean Group and Common Correlated Effects Mean Group estimators are utilized to explore the relationships between the variables, and the findings reveal that natural resource rents, climate change, and industrialization are detrimental to food security across the sub-groups. However, the outcomes affirm institutional quality and economic growth as beneficial drivers of food security across the sub-groups. Therefore, this study recommends that authorities of both low-income and lower-middle-income countries make substantial investments in sustainable natural resource utilization and also work towards enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of their institutions, as well as investing in environmental research to explore climate change mitigation possibilities that could enhance food security in West Africa.

Realizing the 2050 Paris climate agreement in West Africa: the role of financial inclusion and green investments

International organizations have emphasized the importance of global economies supporting efforts to combat climate change. The Paris Agreement or Agenda 2050 urges nations to ensure that the increase in global temperature is limited to 1.5 °C. Studies have analyzed the factors that contribute to harmful emissions, particularly carbon dioxide emissions, in order to limit temperature rise. However, since there are other equally harmful pollutants, this study evaluates the impact of financial inclusion and green investment on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The study uses data from West Africa, where environmental pollution has significantly increased. The study employed regression analysis while controlling for economic growth, foreign direct investment (FDI), and energy consumption. The study's key findings reveal that financial inclusion and green investment have a monotonic effect on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, the study confirms the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis and the pollution haven effect for the region. Technological innovation reduces pollution, but green investment and financial inclusion reinforce this effect. Therefore, the study recommends that governments in the sub-region commit to supporting green investment and environmentally friendly technological innovations. It is also crucial to strictly enforce laws regulating the operations of multinational corporations in the region.

Green financial development efficiency: a catalyst for driving China's green transformation agenda towards sustainable development

The pursuit of a green transformation agenda in China is an important aspect of achieving sustainable development. The role played by green financial development efficiency (GFDE) in this pursuit cannot be overlooked. This paper explored the impact of GFDE on China's green transformation agenda and its contributions toward sustainable development. The study adopts a systematic approach to examine the relationship between GFDE and green transformation, utilizing relevant data and literature. The study aligns with previous research in the field that highlights the importance of green finance in reducing carbon emissions and promoting sustainable development in China. It also adds to the existing literature by specifically focusing on the role of green financial development efficiency in the pursuit of a green transformation agenda in China. The study found a significant improvement in GFDE over the period of 2010 to 2020 in promoting green transformation in China. Both systems generalized method of moments and fixed-effect models revealed that trade openness, foreign investments, technological innovation, and government budget positively influenced GFDE while energy consumption and economic policy uncertainty had a significant adverse effect on GFDE. The results of this study inform policymakers and stakeholders of the importance of green finance in promoting sustainable development. The study intimated that the financial sector should provide support for green technologies and businesses by offering range of green products such as green bonds, funds, and loans.

The role of economic production, energy consumption, and trade openness in urbanization-environment nexus: a heterogeneous analysis on developing economies along the Belt and Road route

In today's world, where urbanization is at its pinnacle, has created a significant economic gap between rural and urban populations in developing economies and substantially influenced environmental degradation. This study investigates the relationship between urbanization and environmental degradation via carbon emissions among developing countries along the Belt and Road route from 1990 to 2019 while using economic production, energy consumption, and trade openness as control variables. The study engages current econometric methodologies to uncover accurate and reliable findings, and the outcomes reveal that the panel under investigation is cross-sectionally dependent and heterogeneous. Therefore, the AMG, CCEMG, and DCCEMG estimators are employed to examine the effect connection between the variables. The outcomes unveil that urbanization, economic production, and energy consumption escalate environmental degradation, but trade openness is confirmed as a trivial determinant of environmental degradation. Furthermore, the causal connections between the variables disclose bi-directional causalities between urbanization and environmental degradation and between energy consumption and environmental degradation. Nevertheless, uni-directional causalities are affirmed, spanning from economic production to environmental degradation and from trade openness to environmental degradation. Finally, policy implications are discussed.

How do financial inclusion and renewable energy collaborate with Environmental quality? Evidence for top ten countries in technological advancement

The environmental situation of our planet is seriously degraded due to the massive spread of greenhouse gases. Several aspects can influence the quality of the environment. The present study debates the effect of financial inclusion (FI) and renewable energy consumption (REC) on the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions of the top ten countries in technological advancement (TTCTA) over the period 2004-2019. Other deterministic factors are included in the empirical study such as real gross domestic product (GDP), non-renewable energy consumption (NREC), and technological advancement (ATECH) to check their influence on environmental indicators. PMG-ARDL approach, cointegration techniques, and Granger causality tests are applied for the empirics part. In the long run, the outcomes show that real GDP, REC, and technological advancement contribute to decreasing CO₂ emissions, while NREC and FI contribute to increasing emissions levels. In the short run, only GDP and NREC significantly deteriorate the environmental quality. Granger shows a long-run bidirectional causality between CO₂ emissions, economic growth, REC, NREC, and ATECH.

Climate change, insurance market, renewable energy, and biodiversity: double-materiality concept from BRICS countries

The threat of biodiversity loss and mass extinction of species with an aftermath will shape all lives now and those to come. In this context, recent empirical studies illustrate various drivers of biodiversity for better environmental quality; however, the impact of the insurance market has not been thoroughly examined. Likewise, the possible non-linearities between biodiversity and its determinants are ignored in the current empirical literature for BRICS economies. Therefore, this work is the first to explore the effect of the insurance market, climate change, and renewable energy on biodiversity in BRICS economies using an advanced method of the non-linear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) method. The findings illustrated that a decline in the insurance market alleviates biodiversity loss and stimulates environmental quality. In contrast, an increasing insurance market augments biodiversity loss and negatively affects ecological quality. Furthermore, the findings uncovered that carbon emissions are detrimental to environmental quality. Lastly, the results report that reducing the level of renewable energy worsens biodiversity loss while boosting renewable energy utilization declines biodiversity loss. The policymakers and regulatory authorities in the BRICS should adopt the risk-based approach proposed by the network of greening the financial system (NGFS) to tackle the dilemma of double materiality between financial institutions and biodiversity.

Exploring the Dynamic Nexus Among Economic Growth, Industrialization, Medical Technology, and Healthcare Expenditure: A PMG-ARDL Panel Data Analysis on Income-Level Classification Along West African Economies

This article explored the dynamic nexus among economic growth, industrialization, medical technology, and healthcare expenditure in West Africa while using urbanization and aged population as control variables. West African countries were sub-sectioned into low-income (LI) and lower-middle-income (LMI) countries. Panel data extracted from the World Development Indicators (WDI) from 2000 to 2019 were used for the study. More modern econometric techniques that are vigorous to cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity were employed in the analytical process in order to provide accurate and trustworthy results. The homogeneity test and cross-sectional dependency test confirmed the studied panels to be heterogeneous and cross-sectionally dependent, respectively. Moreover, the CADF and CIPS unit root tests showed that the variables were not integrated in the same order. This, thus, leads to the employment of the PMG-ARDL estimation approach, which unveiled economic growth and urbanization as trivial determinants of healthcare expenditure in the LI and LMI panels. However, the results affirmed industrialization as a major determinant of healthcare expenditure in the LI and LMI panels. Additionally, medical technology was confirmed to decrease healthcare expenditure in the LMI panel, whereas in the LI panel, an insignificant impact was witnessed. Also, the aged population was found to intensify healthcare expenditure in both the LI and LMI panels. Lastly, on the causal connection between the series, the outcome revealed a mixture of causal paths among the variables in all the panels. Policy recommendations have therefore been proposed based on the study's findings.