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Even though poverty is highly felt in developing economies, the lack of relevant and complete micro-level data limits understanding which households are more exposed to poverty and the role of financial inclusion in poverty in these countries. This research analyzes the effects of financial inclusion proxied by a multidimensional index on three poverty measures (the lowest-income poverty line, a lower-middle-income line, and an upper-middle-income line) by employing the recent Turkish Household Budget and Consumption Expenditure Survey data with 11,595 complete answers. In addition to the application of logistic regressions, this study addresses possible endogeneity issues by using access to the nearest bank as an instrument in a two-stage least-squares regression and employing the novel method as a robustness check. Empirical results point out that an increase in financial inclusion decreases poverty in Turkey. The adverse effect of financial inclusion on poverty is validated through a few robustness and sensitivity analyses. The outcome also indicates that health expenditure and income are essential through which poverty is influenced by financial inclusion. Thus, policies are required to enhance the financial inclusion of households to alleviate poverty. Further discussions are presented in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of economies and energy usage can significantly impact the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the factors that determine CO2 emissions in MENA under the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) framework by applying novel quantile techniques on data for CO2 emissions, real income, renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, and urbanization over the period from 1990 to 2015. The results from the estimations suggest that renewable energy consumption significantly reduces the level of emissions; furthermore, its impact increases with higher quantiles. In addition, non-renewable energy consumption increases CO2 emissions, while its magnitude decreases with higher quantiles. The empirical results also confirm the validity of EKC hypothesis for the panel of MENA economies. Policymakers in the region should implement policies and regulations to promote the adoption and use of renewable energy to mitigate carbon emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]