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This study assessed the equity in irrigation water uses and its impacts on paddy yield and water productivity among rice farmers in the Kano River Irrigation Project. Two hundred and twenty-five (225) respondents were used for the data collection from January to June 2021. The data were analyzed using the Kruskal Walli's test, Tukey kramer post-Hoc test, physical water productivity, and the Logit model. The results indicated that the downstream farmers had the lowest mean yield (1625 kg/acre), lowest access to irrigation water, and lowest irrigation water use (2430 m3/acre). However, they had the highest water productivity (0.66 kg/m3) against 0.44 kg/m3 and 0.58 kg/m3 for middle and upstream farmers, respectively. The logit regression results disclosed that the farm locations, quantity of irrigation water, access to irrigation water, and training on water use were statistically significant determinant of paddy output. Efforts to teach farmers about the actual crop water requirements are needed to promote irrigation water efficiency and conserve scarce resources for other competing users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigating the determinants of environmental sustainability has become a very attractive and popular area of research in response to the United Nations' sustainable development goals (SDGs) and COP26 targets. Against this backdrop, this paper aims to explore the effects of renewable energy, technological innovation, and the insurance market on environmental sustainability in the United States (US). This work contributes to the extant body of knowledge by exploring the effect of the insurance market on the load capacity factor (LC), specifically regarding the US. The LC tracks a certain ecological threshold by simultaneously comparing biocapacity and ecological footprint (EF), thereby providing a comprehensive empirical analysis of ecological sustainability determinants. However, this proxy includes the combined attributes of the demand and supply sides of ecological sustainability. Using the recently developed autoregressive distributed lag method, this research reveals that the insurance market adversely affects the LC in the US. The overall outcomes highlight the positive role of renewable energy, technological innovation, and the insurance market in achieving the SDGs and COP26 targets. Policy recommendations for policymakers concerning promoting renewable energy, green innovation activities, the green insurance market, and ecological regulations are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rising carbon dioxide emissions from the MENA region constitute a severe danger to the environment, public health, and the execution of the United Nations SDGs. Substantial steps are required to solve this problem and maintain the region's sustainable future. Hence, the current study focused on distinct factors, including renewable energy, energy intensity, green innovation, GDP, and CO2 emissions from 1990 to 2021. The research determines the multifarious variables in various quantiles, including the novel Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR) approach, Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FM-OLS), Dynamic Ordinary Least Square (D-OLS) and Driscoll-Kraay Standard Errors (DKS) applied. The findings reveal that renewable energy significantly reduces carbon emissions in all quantiles, while energy intensity, green innovation, and GDP lead to carbon emissions in lower, middle, and upper quantiles. For robust outcome confirmed by FM-OLS, D-OLS, and DKS methods. Also, Granger heterogeneous causality applied that confirmed the bidirectional causality among the variables. The study's findings imply that authorities should emphasize the emergence of renewable energy and green innovation while adopting energy-efficient technologies to minimize carbon emissions and accomplish SDGs 7, 9, and 13 to secure the MENA region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an oil-exporting country, Oman traditionally relies on oil sources to meet its energy demand. The country has not been able to safeguard its environment from carbon emissions (CO2)-related adversities. In this context, this study evaluated the impacts of the price of oil, financial development, economic growth, and nonrenewable energy on the environmental quality in Oman. The research used the recently developed augmented autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach to investigate annual data from 1980 to 2018. The outcomes revealed the following: (i) financial development negatively affected ecological quality in the short and long term; (ii) oil prices positively impact carbon emissions in the long term; however, the price of oil does not significantly influence CO2 emissions in the short term; (iii) nonrenewable energy is harmful for ecological quality over both the short and long term; (iv) there is a causal link among financial development, nonrenewable energy, and carbon emissions. The current research outcomes present valuable findings for Oman's policymakers in heading toward sustainable financial and energy sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The asymmetric level of integration within the European Union (EU) regarding membership in the European Monetary Union (EMU) has resulted in inconsistent responses to crises such as the Great Recession of 2007–2009 and the European sovereign debt crisis of 2010–2013. Furthermore, it has led to varying outcomes of monetary and fiscal policies implemented across EU countries. This paper aims to investigate the impact of monetary and fiscal policies on economic development and employment through the inflation channel in the EU between 2007 and 2015, using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results indicate that the outcomes of monetary policy have been mixed between EMU and non-EMU countries, resulting in different measures and negative spillover effects of the European Central Bank's (ECB) policy on countries outside of the EMU. Meanwhile, the ability of fiscal policy to lower inflation and boost economic growth and employment has been limited, which means that the impact of fiscal policy on both economic development and employment and inflation has been minor. Based on the findings of this study, there should be better coordination of monetary and fiscal policies at the EU level to support the macroeconomic stability of the Union during times of crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the face of declining water resources and low agricultural water productivity, it is vital to increase agricultural production efficiency and efficiency of water usage. The efficacy of irrigating rice fields in Nigeria is evaluated here using a stochastic frontier analysis. This is a parametric frontier that is assumed to have half-normal distribution, allowing the model to be separated from normal errors in a composite error model. Samples of 382 surveys were used in the study; out of the total number, 361 surveys were retrieved and used for the analysis. The analytical tools used in the study are: gross margin, water productivity analysis, and stochastic frontier approach. The results indicate an average yield of 4.69 and 4.94 tons/hectare, and net farm income of $415 and $364 for the farmers using canal irrigation and farmers using tube wells, respectively. The results also showed physical and economic water productivity of 0.51 kg/m3 and $0.11/m3 for canal water users, and 0.568 kg/m3 and $0.10/m3 for tube well users. The canal water users had a mean irrigation water use efficiency of 0.76, compared to 0.70 for the tube well users. The study recommends that effective extension services and their coverage be enhanced to provide adequate training to rice farmers on water use efficiency and the transfer of innovations and farming technologies to farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unfortunately, accidents caused by bad weather have regularly made headlines throughout history. Some of the more catastrophic events to recently make news include a plane crash, ship collision, railway derailment, and several vehicle accidents. The public's attention has been directed to the severe issue of safety and security under extreme weather conditions, and many studies have been conducted to highlight the susceptibility of transportation services to environmental factors. An automated method of determining the weather's state has gained importance with the development of new technologies and the rise of a new industry: intelligent transportation. Humans are well-suited for determining the temperature from a single photograph. Nevertheless, this is a more challenging problem for a fully autonomous system. The objective of this research is developing a good weather classifier that uses only a single image as input. To resolve quality-of-life challenges, we propose a modified deep-learning method to classify the weather condition. The proposed model is based on the Yolov5 model, which has been hyperparameter tuned with the Learning-without-Forgetting (LwF) approach. We took 1499 images from the Roboflow data repository and divided them into training, validation, and testing sets (70%, 20%, and 10%, respectively). The proposed model has gained 99.19% accuracy. The results demonstrated that the proposed model gained a much higher accuracy level in comparison with existing approaches. In the future, this proposed model may be implemented in real-time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green and blue infrastructure has gained importance for energy firms around the globe due to increased focus on addressing emerging challenges raised in the achievement of green innovation (GI) and the protection of the environment. Pollution reduction and green technology are key factors that help to accomplish GI. The aim of the current research was to examine how green and blue infrastructure and green technologies impact and improve energy firms' business GI in Pakistan. Quantitative methods were used for the collection of data from 475 managers, policymakers, senior employees, owners, and CEOs. Findings demonstrated that green and blue infrastructure and GI were positively linked. The results also showed that pollution reduction played a mediating role between blue infrastructure and GI. Furthermore, findings also revealed that green technology played a moderating role between green and blue infrastructure and GI. Pollution reduction is a crucial factor in developing the GI performance of energy firms. These new outcomes extend green and blue infrastructure and GI literature and provide empirical proof for practitioners and policymakers. Our study suggests that green technology positively influences green and blue infrastructure, which in turn is associated with GI. This study is based on critical factors that have encouraging impacts on GI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the impact of fiscal and financial incentives for energy efficiency labels on eco-friendly houses (houses with high energy efficiency certificates, such as A+, A, B, and B−) in 18 municipalities in the Lisbon metropolitan region during the period 2014–2020. The empirical results indicate that the variables of fiscal incentive policies for energy efficiency labels, income per capita, credit agreements for the purchase or construction of a house, and the number of completed dwellings in new constructions for family housing encourage eco-friendly houses. In contrast, the variable number of completed reconstructions per 100 completed new constructions has a negative impact. Although this study is constrained by data limitations resulting from the short period under analysis and the moderate number of municipalities available, it advances the discussions around energy efficiency in residential properties in Portugal. Furthermore, it investigates the effectiveness of tax incentive policies for energy efficiency seals as an instrument for promoting ecological houses in the municipalities of the Lisbon metropolitan area. Thus, the need to study the Portuguese capital stands out as it is the most populous city in the country and concentrates a large part of the economic activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relationship between geothermal energy consumption, economic growth, and foreign direct investments in countries where geothermal energy production is possible. Panel Fourier Granger causality and panel Fourier Toda–Yamamoto causality tests (2020–2021) were applied, which can take into account smooth transitional structural breaks with trigonometric functions using quarterly data for the period 2016 Q1–2020 Q3. Data were obtained from the International Energy Agency (IEA), Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED), and the OECD official website. According to the results obtained based on panels, there is one-way causality from economic growth to geothermal energy and one-way causality from geothermal energy consumption to foreign direct investments. The results obtained based on individual countries indicate that one-way causality from foreign direct investment to geothermal energy consumption was found for Mexico and Portugal, and one-way causality from geothermal energy consumption to economic growth was found for Italy and Mexico. On the other hand, causality from economic growth to geothermal energy consumption was observed for Germany, Japan, and USA. No significant results were found for Turkey and New Zealand, and it is understood that the macroeconomic structures of these countries are not affected by geothermal energy. The difference in the results reveals that the application recommendations on this subject should also be different. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although previous related studies illustrate several factors that reduce and eliminate ecological pollution, empirical evidence that examines the impact of banking development on footprint ecological quality is missed. This study explores the impact of banking development, renewable energy consumption, and economic growth on the ecological footprint of 27 OECD countries spanning data from 1990 to 2018. Using the method of moments quantile regression (MMQR), the results indicated that a 1% increase in banking expansion is projected to augment the ecological footprint in the OECD nations across all quantiles (first to ninth). Thus, the results affirm that banking development dampens ecological sustainability in the OECD nations. In contrast, the results indicate that renewable energy promotes ecological sustainability in the OECD nations across all quantiles (first to ninth). The empirical findings suggest that OECD policymakers should regard banking and economic development as a "green energy fostering mechanism" while designing policies to promote ecological friend energy sources. Moreover, as part of their core mandates, central banks, and regulatory authorities should promote financial innovation in the banking sector to mobilize the required capital to facilitate nature conservation and restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online transactions, medical services, financial transactions, and banking all have their share of fraudulent activity. The annual revenue generated by fraud exceeds $1 trillion. Even while fraud is dangerous for organizations, it may be uncovered with the help of intelligent solutions such as rules engines and machine learning. In this research, we introduce a unique hybrid technique for identifying financial payment fraud by combining nature-inspired-based Hyperparameter tuning with several supervised classifier models, as implemented in a modified version of the XGBoost Algorithm. At the outset, we split out a sample of the full financial payment dataset to use as a test set. We use 70% of the data for training and 30% for testing. Records that are known to be illegitimate or fraudulent are predicted, while those that raise suspicion are further investigated using a number of machine learning algorithms. The models are trained and validated using the 10-fold cross-validation technique. Several tests using a dataset of actual financial transactions are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutional quality, financial development, and natural resources primarily determine how economic representatives support their operational and production behaviors towards escalating the renewable energy share in the whole energy mix and protecting ecological quality. In this way, this paper is the first to investigate the influence of institutional quality, natural resources, financial development, and renewable energy on economic growth and the environment simultaneously in China from 1996 to 2020. The cointegration approaches verify the presence of a long-run association between the selected variables. The autoregressive distributed lag model outcomes reveal that institutional quality and renewable energy utilization greatly diminish ecological footprint. At the same time, other prospective indicators such as financial expansion and natural resources significantly enhance ecological footprint levels in the short- and long-run. Furthermore, institutional quality, financial expansion, renewable energy, and natural resources significantly trigger economic growth. Besides this, this study has revealed the unidirectional causal association from institutional quality and financial expansion to ecological footprint. In contrast, bidirectional causality occurs between renewable energy, natural resources, ecological footprint, and economic growth. The current research results offer some policy implications that will help to reduce the detrimental influence of environmental deprivation, without hindering the economic growth trajectory in the case of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary objective of this research was to determine the impact of renewable energy, alternative and nuclear energy, urbanization, energy use, and fossil fuel energy consumption on Romanian economic development. To investigate the relation between variables, we employed the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) technique in conjunction with FMOLS (Fully Modified Least Squares) and CCR (Canonical Cointegrating Regression). Long-run and short-run findings suggest that alternative and nuclear energy, as well as fossil fuel consumption, has a positive association with economic growth, but renewable energy, urbanization, and energy usage have an adversative relationship with economic growth. Similarly, FMOLS and CCR statistics indicate that alternative and nuclear energy and fossil fuel consumption have a favorable impact on economic development. Renewable energy consumption, urbanization, and energy use, on the other hand, revealed a negative connection with economic progress. Conservative solutions are necessary to implement appropriate policies to address energy consumption concerns in Romania in order to improve economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most countries, notably those that signed the Paris Climate Agreement, prioritize achieving the zero carbon or carbon neutrality aim. Unlike earlier studies, this one assesses the contribution of environmental policy, clean energy, green innovation, and renewable energy to the E7 economies' achievement of carbon neutrality goals from 1990 to 2019. Findings emanating from the study show that the EKC hypothesis is valid in E7 countries. Implying that emissions in the E7 countries increased with the kick-off of development but declined later due to possible potent environmental regulatory policies put in place. Similarly, across all models, renewable energy (REN), green innovations (GINNO), environmental tax (ETAX), and technological innovations (TECH) were found to exert a negative and significant impact on carbon emissions in the E7 countries both in the short and long run. On the other hand, economic expansion (GDP) positively impacts environmental deterioration. Furthermore, the country-specific result shows that, on average, Brazil, India, China, Russia, Mexico, and Indonesia have significant environmental policies aiding carbon abatement. Except for Brazil, Mexico, and Indonesia, the income growth in the rest of the countries does not follow the EKC proposition. Furthermore, the causality result revealed a unidirectional causal relationship between GDP, REN, and GINNO to CO2 emission. No causality was found between ETAX with CO2, while a bi-directional causality exists between technology and CO2 emissions. Based on the finding, policymakers in the E7 countries should move away from fossil fuels because future electricity output will not be sufficient to reduce emissions considerably. Environmental regulations, encouraging technological innovation, adopting green and sustainable technology, and clean energy sources, among other things, demand radical and broad changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The G-7 economies comprise a few of the global, mainly economically developed countries. On the other hand, in conjunction with these high economic development performances, the ecological behaviors in G-7 anions have concurrently provoked to elevate deep apprehensions among the stakeholders. Therefore, the present research aims to empirically investigate the environmental influences of nuclear energy, industrialization, fossil fuel energy, and foreign direct investment (FDI) in the G-7 nations between 1991 and 2018. After checking the cross-sectional dependency, this study employed the first-generation ((full modified ordinary least square (FMOLS), dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS)) and second-generation (Driscoll and Kraay (D-K), feasible generalized least square (FGLS)) approaches for robust and reliable findings. The findings explore that nuclear energy production is ineffective in curbing the figure of ecological footprints in the long-run. Moreover, the industrialization process and fossil fuel energy consumption reduce environmental quality in the G-7 economies. More to the point, the empirical findings recommend that these nations can renovate their industrial production procedures in an eco-friendly behavior they can experience an unsoiled deployment of the energy transition. Similarly, the FDI also degrades environmental eminence in the long-run. This validates the pollution haven hypothesis in the G-7 countries. Based on these results, this study suggests the G-7 nations should reduce the production of nuclear energy levels, the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy production in the industrial sector, reduce fossil fuel-based foreign investment, and assimilate ecological welfare strategies within their development planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper aims to evaluate the effect of social networks on the green innovation of energy sector firms working around the globe. The study also evaluated green dynamic capabilities' mediating, and green organizational culture's moderating role in the association of the social networks and green innovation. The study will help electricity production and distribution firms to become more environmentally proactive and achieve green innovation. For this research, study data were collected from employees working in the energy sector firms of Pakistan. Standardized scales were adapted from previous studies and a questionnaire was developed using 'Google Docs' and distributed using Facebook. From different energy sectors of Pakistan,476 respondents filled the questionnaires. To examine the research hypotheses, we chose energy firms that act as small and medium enterprises and face problems in the achievement of green innovation. For testing the proposed relationships, descriptive statistics, regression, and correlation analyses were used. The results supported all the hypotheses of the study. Current research has various theoretical and practical implications for managers of the energy industry, and governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study explored the impact of renewable energy use, urbanization, economic growth and trade in services on CO2 emission in Maldives by using annual data series ranging from 1990 to 2020. We have checked the variables influences by utilizing the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) method with long-run and short-run connections. Findings via long-run and short-run showed that the variables renewable energy use and economic growth has positive and negative coefficients via positive and negative shocks that uncover the constructive and adverse linkage to CO2 emission in Maldives. Similarly, trade in services showed an adversative and positive connection to CO2 emission via positive and negative shocks. During the analysis, the variable urbanization uncovered a negative linkage to CO2 emission. It is imperative that Maldives implement new policies and strategies aimed at reducing CO2 emission in order to avert the environmental devastation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study explores the impact of renewable energy usage, economic progress, urbanization, and trade on carbon emissions in Bhutan. The stationarity among the variables was tested by employing the two unit root tests by taking the annual data series variables from 1982–2020. A symmetric (ARDL) technique was utilized to analyze the associations among variables with short- and long-run estimations. In addition, the cointegration regression method using FMOLS and DOLS was used in this investigation to discover the robustness of the study variables. Findings showed that via long-run assessment the variables renewable energy consumption, urbanization, and trade have adverse connections with CO2 emission, while the variable economic progress shows a constructive linkage with carbon emission. However, the short-run assessment showed that the variable economic growth has a positive impact on carbon emissions. Further, the variables renewable energy consumption, urbanization, and trade have an adverse relation to carbon emissions in Bhutan. The consequences of both FMOLS and DOLS also mean that the variable renewable energy usage, urbanization, and trade have an adverse influence on carbon emission, while economic growth has a constructive linkage with CO2 emission. Greenhouse gas emissions are undeniably an increasing global issue. This problem can only be handled by prudent legislation and funding. Despite having fewer greenhouse gas emissions than industrialized economies, Bhutan's government needs to develop new rules to address this issue in order to ensure environmental sustainability and economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to examine the direct impact of green innovation strategies and the green dynamic capability on green innovation. The indirect effect is also tested, using green organizational identity as a mediator. A cross-sectional and quantitative research approach was used to collect data from energy firms. The results show that green innovation strategies and green dynamic capabilities positively affect the green innovation. The findings also proved that a green organizational identity acts as a mediator. The research outcomes suggest that the role of green organizational identity needs to be verified by firm managers who want to boost green innovation. In the advance era, society is more conscious about the green environment. Managers need a green innovation strategy to achieve green innovation within their firm. This study will help to manage the environmental issues, environmental degradation reductions, and establishment of green programs and products, which will all benefit society in the terms of improving resource efficiency, enhancing quality of life, and encouraging economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the high resilience of the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) banking sectors during the last financial crisis and their major role in the CEE region in financing the economy and supporting the high growth rates achieved there, our paper investigates the determinants of banking profitability in the CEE banking sectors based on a Generalized Method of Methods (GMM) approach using data between 2009 and 2018. We have selected determinants from the macroeconomic factors and from the financial-banking specific factors using a two-step GMM method. Our findings demonstrate that unemployment rate, inflation, budget balance, non-governmental credit, non-performing loan rates, concentration rate and capitalization rate negatively impact on the banking profitability in the CEE banking sectors. According to these findings, some policy recommendations were elaborated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Europe 2020 strategy is the EU strategy for sustainable and inclusive growth, for fighting the structural weaknesses of the European economies, and for improving their competitiveness. In this paper, we determined the most important ratios of the Europe 2020 Strategy impacting on economic performance expressed as the growth of the GDP per capita, and on economic competitiveness expressed as the share of the countries’ exports in total world exports for some selected Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries (Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Romania) using co-integration tests and OLS panel estimations with a dataset between 2004 (after four of these selected countries acceded to EU) and 2015 (the latest available data for all the ratios we used in our analysis). Our findings show that the tertiary level of education is the most important factor, positively correlated with both endogenous variables mentioned above. Other important factors for achieving the economic performance and competitiveness goals are the school dropout ratio, the share of renewable energy in final energy consumption, and the employment rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decade, environment protection gained much more significance in designing the economic policies in the European Union (EU) countries. There are many economic and policy differences between the European countries, despite of the harmonization process inside the EU area. The path of implementation of the environmental tax reforms in the EU countries differs greatly from one country to another and the effects of such taxation in the economic and environmental areas are manifold. The authors of this paper have agreed to undertake the task of testing the double dividend hypothesis of the environmental taxation in Romania (an energy-intensive country) versus the EU area as a whole, using Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) techniques and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) estimations. Our findings show that this hypothesis is validated neither in Romania (in the economic growth area) nor in the EU area as a whole (in the unemployment area). Therefore, Romania cannot increase the level of the environmental tax for supporting economic growth, but it can grant environmental subsidies for decreasing the emissions and supporting the economic growth. This could be achieved by expanding the tax labor base and by collecting higher budgetary revenues to sustain such environmental subsidies. As far as the EU area is concerned, it is a necessary measure to continue the descending trend for the labor taxation to achieve the goal of improving the employment rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study shows the impact of environmental resources conservation efforts (ERCE) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) authenticity on environmental performance (EP) in the hospitality and tourism industry. A mediating role of CSR authenticity between the ERCE and environmental performance link is also checked. A quantitative research design has been employed, and data were collected through a questionnaire. Results show that both ERCE and CSR authenticity positively influence environmental performance. Results also show that CSR authenticity act as a mediator, which enhances the positive impact of ERCE on environmental performance. Environmental performance is a broader concept, and its achievement is majorly dependent on the attraction of stakeholders. This study points out that stakeholders should be more concerned with environmental management's initiatives in terms of resource conservation efforts and organization involvement in CSR activities for achieving the environmental performance goal. ERCE is a pre-condition for an efficient involvement in CSR-related activities to achieve environmental performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to construct a bi-directional, financial liberalization index for Pakistan by considering various financial policy indicators (reforms). This study, by employing the principal component analysis method over a period of 1980–2018 (39 years), aims to determine the composite outcome in the case of developing a financial index. This study uses 14 financial policy indicators to investigate the degree of financial liberalization over a specified time period. The present study suggests a financial liberalization index for Pakistan considering the real-time change in the implementation process. The formulated index revealed that the recorded profitability of financial reforms was consistently high until 1998. Meanwhile, in the period from 1997 to 2003, the outcomes of financial reforms were surprisingly strong. Beyond 2004 and for the rest of the remaining years until 2018, the liberalization process recorded was comparatively slow. Thus, it was witnessed that all the key indicators, in the sense of regulation and liberalization, included determining the degree of financial liberalization. The consistency track of a liberalization index is a major focus of attention for policy makers, in order to capture the efficiency outcomes from various financial policy indicators, which were implemented beyond 2004. Furthermore, corporate risk in terms of better access to finance is also raised as a consequence of financial liberalization. Financial liberalization also resulted in a decrease in the cost of capital and improved the corporate governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of advanced technologies has brought new challenges and opportunities for all kinds of business organizations. In a technologically advanced era, innovation plays a dominant role for the successful operation of the commercial landscape. Therefore, the current study was conducted to investigate the impact of network capabilities (NC) and frugal innovation (FI) on innovation performance (IP). Furthermore, the mediating role of FI and moderating role of innovation strategies has also been tested on the link between NC and IP. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) registered with small and medium enterprises development authorities (SMEDA) were approached for the completion of the current study. Only 509 owner/managers agreed to participate. A quantitative research design was employed for the current study. During the two–three months process of data collection only 387 complete responses were received from the SMEs working in Pakistan's big cities. Correlation, regression and bootstrap methods were applied to test the study hypotheses. The findings revealed that NC positively affect FI and IP. Furthermore, the findings also confirmed the mediating effect of FI between NC and IP link. The performance of SMEs working in emerging economies is largely based on their innovative activities. In this dynamic scenario SMEs' survival is attached to continuous IP in their products and services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to determine the interaction of commercial energy distribution, including the installed capacity of hydroelectric energy, hydroelectric energy generation, the installed capacity of thermal energy, thermal energy generation, the installed capacity of nuclear energy, and nuclear energy generation, with economic progress in Pakistan over the 1970–2019 period. Both linear and non-linear autoregressive distributed lag models were used to ascertain the symmetric and asymmetric short- and long-run effects. The findings from the linear autoregressive distributed lag model analysis revealed evidence that increases in the installed capacity of nuclear energy, alongside higher levels of hydroelectric energy generation and thermal energy generation, have positively affected economic growth in the short run, while a greater installed capacity of nuclear energy has positively affected economic growth in the long run. The findings from the non-linear autoregressive distributed lag model analysis showed that negative shocks to installed capacities related to hydroelectric, thermal, and nuclear energy reduced economic growth, while positive shocks to hydroelectric energy generation and the installed capacity of nuclear energy boosted economic growth in the short run. Furthermore, in the long run, negative shocks to the installed capacities of hydroelectric and thermal energy reduced economic growth, negative shocks to the installed capacity of nuclear energy enhanced economic growth, and positive shocks to hydroelectric energy generation and the installed capacity of nuclear energy have stimulated economic growth in Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization has contributed to several advances in technology including linking people around the globe and driving us to modern economies. With fast economic growth and industrialization progress, the negative impact of globalization on biodiversity can be easily ignored. Globalization is an undeniable factor in our planetary devastation from pollution to global warming and climate change. The major intention of our recent analysis was to examine the globalization, energy consumption, trade, economic growth, and fuel importation to determine the ecological footprint in Pakistan by taking the annual data variables from 1974–2017. A linear ARDL (autoregressive distributed lag) technique with limited information maximum likelihood and linear Gaussian model estimation were utilized to check the variables association. Outcomes show that in the long run, globalization, energy usage, trade, and GDP growth have consistently productive interactions with the ecological footprint, while an examination of fuel importation uncovers an adversative linkage to impacts on the ecological footprint in Pakistan. Similarly, the findings of short-run interactions also reveal that globalization, energy usage, trade, and GDP growth have constructive linkages; however, an examination of fuel importation also uncovers an adversative linkage to impacts on the ecological footprint. The outcomes of limited information maximum likelihood also expose that the variables of globalization, energy usage, trade, and fuel importation have productive linkages, while an examination the GDP growth uncovers an adversative linkage to the ecological footprint. Furthermore, the outcomes of the linear Gaussian model estimation also uncover that globalization and energy usage demonstrate a constructive linkage, while other variables reveal an adverse linkage to the ecological footprint. Environmental pollution is now an emerging issue which causes the climatic variations associated with greenhouse gases emissions. The Pakistani government must adopt new strategies to ensure that CO2 emissions are reduced in order to stimulate economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to examine the impact of coal energy consumption on the economic progress in Pakistan by using annual time series data during 1972–2019. Three-unit root tests were employed to rectify the variables' stationarity. The quantile regression approach with the extension of cointegration regression test was utilized to check the variables interaction with the economic progress. The outcomes of the quantile regression uncover that coal energy consumption in power sector and coal energy consumption in brick kilns have adverse influence to the economic progress, while total coal energy consumption has a productive association with the economic progress. Similarly, the findings of cointegration regression analysis uncover that via FMOLS (Fully Modified Least Squares) and DOLS (Dynamic Least Squares) that variables coal energy consumption in power sector and brick kilns have an adverse connection with the economic progress, while total coal energy consumption uncover a productive linkage to the economic progress in Pakistan. Pakistan is still facing a deep energy crisis because of the lack of energy production from cheap sources. New possible policies are required in this direction to improve the energy sector by paying more attention to the alternative energy sources to foster the economic progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the importance of individual level creativity, this paper investigates the influence of employee polychronicity on employee creativity among nurses in the healthcare sector. The current research also tests how job engagement acts as a mediator between employees' polychronicity and creativity. Finally, thepaper analyzes the role of functional flexibility as a moderator that enhances the influence of polychronicity on employee creativity. The current paper presents empirical research, and cross-sectional data were gathered from 457 nurses (Subordinate Staff) and 127 doctors (Supervisors) working in 37DHQ (District Head Quarters) hospitals in Pakistan. Descriptive statistics, correlation, and multiple-regression techniques were applied for analyzing the collected data. The findings proved that the nurses' polychronic attitude increases their creativity. Findings revealed that job commitment plays a mediating role between polychronicity and employee creativity. The findings proved that functional flexibility enhances the link between polychronicity and creativity. This research has contributed to both theory and managerial practice about the interplay of polychronicity, creativity, job engagement, and functional flexibility among nurses. The management in practice should focus on employee attitude, i.e., polychronicity, for improving their creativeness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate the direct impact of green motives (GM) and green business strategies (GBS) on sustainable development (SD) in the hospitality sector. It explores the direct links between GM and SD. Moreover, the mediating role of GBS between GM and SD was tested. The research relies on the stakeholders' theory, which states that the organization's success and future development depends on the satisfaction of stakeholders. Data were collected from 451 top managers and owners from 54 hotels (5, 4 and 3-star hotels) operating in Pakistan. Quantitative analysis including correlation, regression, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation model techniques were used. The mediating role of GBS was assessed using the bootstrapping method. Results proved that GM and GBS enable hotel industry to achieve the targets of SD. Finding also proved that GBS act as a mediator between the GM and SD link. The hotel industry needs attention to achieve the targets of SD and customers' inclination towards more hygienic and environmental issues after the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic situation has forced the hotel industry to adapt GBS initiated through GM. The current research articulated this upcoming issue and offered a SD model for the hotel industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to explore the direct impact of the digital orientation, Internet of Things (IoT) and digital platforms on the sustainable digital innovation in the context of the digital economy and frugal environment. This study also investigated the mediating role of the digital platforms in these relations. The study was based on the quantitative research design and data were collected from the 397 CEOs and managing directors of Small and Medium Enterprises in Pakistan. Correlation and structural equation modeling approaches were applied for the analysis and testing of the hypotheses. Results revealed that the digital orientation, IoT and digital platform are major antecedents of the sustainable digital innovation. Results also show that the digital platforms mediate between both digital orientation-sustainable digital innovation link and IoT-sustainable digital innovation link. The rapid pace of change in the technology has forced the business organizations to think out of box and align their operational mechanism accordingly. The need for the sustainable digital innovation is a major need of the current decade for meeting the increasing demands of the society in a sustainable way. Organizations, especially SMEs, should be able to deal with these challenges and rapid technological transformations through cost effective frugal business models. The frugal innovation is an important element of sustainable digital innovation enables SMEs to reduce resources usage and waste and to enhance sustainable economic activities. In this way, they can develop and gain advantages in this highly competitive digital environment. This is the first study showing the bright harmony of the digital orientation, IoT and digital platforms for achieving the sustainable digital innovation in the rapid evolving digital economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates the impact of oil price, income and carbon dioxide emissions on renewable energy consumption in Russia for the data period from 1990 to 2015, using the Vector Error Correction Models and the Canonical Cointegrating Regression method. This article is the only study conducting individual time-series analysis that emphasizes the effect of oil price on renewable energy consumption in the case of Russia. The results of empirical analysis conclude that oil price affects renewable energy consumption negatively. The negative oil price effects on renewable energy use can be interpreted as a sign of issue that stems from higher oil prices and slows the transition from conventional to renewable energy sources. Additionally, we found that there is a positive and statistically significant influence of real GDP per capita as a proxy of income on renewable energy consumption, whereas the carbon dioxide emissions have a negative and statistically insignificant influence on renewable energy consumption. Considering these empirical results, Russia, which has a significant share in energy production in the world, should focus on the use of renewable energy in order to maintain this superiority and its sustainability. The findings of this paper may be useful to policymakers and may help to contribute to existing literature for future research in the case of oil-exporting countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optimal design of regional integrated energy systems (RIES) offers great potential for better managing energy sources, lower costs and reducing environmental impact. To capture the transition process from fossil fuel to renewable energy, a flexible RIES, including the traditional energy system (TES) based on the coal and biomass based distributed energy system (BDES), was designed to meet a regional multiple energy demand. In this paper, we analyze multiple scenarios based on a new rural community in Dalian (China) to capture the relationship among the energy supply cost, increased share of biomass, system configuration transformation, and renewable subsidy according to regional CO2 emission abatement control targets. A mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model was developed to find the optimal solutions. The results indicated that a 40.58% increase in the share of biomass in the RIES was the most cost-effective way as compared to the separate TES and BDES. Based on the RIES with minimal cost, by setting a CO2 emission reduction control within 40%, the RIES could ensure a competitive total annual cost as compared to the TES. In addition, when the reduction control exceeds 40%, a subsidy of 53.83 to 261.26 RMB/t of biomass would be needed to cover the extra cost to further increase the share of biomass resource and decrease the CO2 emission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the current worsening of climate change-associated risks, the transition to low-carbon energy sources has become a global priority. In this context, the advances in the implementation of smart grids, which, in addition to greater efficiency and resilience, also allow greater penetration of renewable distributed energy resources, are becoming increasingly important. However, the necessary investments will be colossal. Many specialists see the process of opening up the electric energy markets as essential to boosting these new technologies. Greater decentralization of the decision-making process can potentially promote greater scalability. However, not all liberalization reforms have led to good results. Several researchers have been evaluating experiences in different countries. Brazil, a country with continental dimensions and peculiar characteristics, already counts with a mostly renewable electric energy generation mix. In recent decades, however, it has become increasingly dependent on fossil fuel sources. Brazil has been conducting a process of opening the electric energy market since the 1990s. This process has faced a series of barriers. This article presents a critical bibliographic review of the Brazilian Power System history and its ongoing opening process, its possible successes and errors, as well as its perspectives and challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union's environmental goal by 2050 is to become the first climate-neutral continent in the world. This means specific efforts for diversifying the energy mix and investing in low-carbon energy. Our study investigates the nexus among carbon emissions, energy consumption and mix, and economic growth in a modified framework that includes the contribution of inward foreign direct investments and international trade to lowering air pollution. We have used a two-step approach to explore in more detail the links between these variables in 24 EU countries over the period 1995–2018, followed by a panel VECM analysis. Our results indicate that there is a unidirectional link between economic growth and CO2 emissions, which should imply a decoupling of environmental improvement measures from the pace of economic growth. We also find bidirectional causal relationships between low-carbon energy shares in consumption and CO2 emissions, as well as between low-carbon energy share in consumption and GDP per capita, which confirms both pollution haven and the halo effect hypotheses for FDI on gas emissions. However, in the long term, FDI, exports, and imports have positively impacted the reduction in CO2 emissions; therefore, stronger EU investment and trade integration should be promoted to improve the quality of the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction or strengthening of a carbon tax is being considered in many countries as an economic policy instrument to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, there is no study analyzing the impact of a carbon tax increase in a uniform method for various products, reflecting the energy taxes and exemptions. Therefore, this study analyzes the price changes of products associated with the introduction of a stronger carbon tax, using Japan as an example. A process-based life cycle assessment database was used to enable a detailed product-level analysis. Five scenarios with different taxation amounts and methods were analyzed. The results show that price changes vary greatly by industry sector and product, even within the same industry sector. For example, seasonal vegetables and recycled plastics are less affected by carbon tax increases. Imported products, such as primary aluminum, are not affected by the Japanese carbon tax change, indicating a risk of carbon leakage. If GHGs other than CO2 are also taxed, the price of CH4 and N2O emitting products, such as rice and beef, would rise significantly. The method presented in this paper enables companies to assume price changes in procured products due to carbon taxes and policymakers to analyze the impact of such taxes on products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attaining sustainable development and cleaner production is a major challenge both for developed and developing economies; income, institutional regulations, institutional quality and international trade are the key determinants of environmental externalities. The current work attempts to study the role of environmental taxes and regulations on renewable energy generation for developed economies. For that, the authors have used the annual dataset for the period 1994 to 2018. More specifically, the study investigates the impacts of environmental taxes, environment-related technologies and the environmental policy stringency index on renewable electricity generation in 29 developed countries. Given the short available data of these countries, the authors have developed panel cointegration and panel regressions models (fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS), quantile regressions). The heterogeneous panel empirics stated that environmental regulations and income level support renewable electricity generation. The conclusions further mention that bureaucratic qualities such as decision making and trade openness tend to reduce renewable energy generation. The empirical findings allowed us to draw new narrative and implications. Overall, the conclusions argue that innovative regulations and policies can be useful for attaining specific sustainable development goals (e.g., SDG-7: cleaner and cheap energy). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This current study was conducted in order to develop a digital innovation model based on the digital organizational culture, digital capability, and organizational readiness. This study explores how the organizational readiness plays a mediating role between the digital capabilities and digital innovation and between the digital organizational culture and digital innovation. For data collection, the survey instrument was used to collect data from 227 SMEs of ICT industry in Pakistan. The findings have revealed a significant connection of the digital organizational culture and digital capabilities with the digital innovation. Second, the organizational readiness mediates between the digital capabilities, digital organizational culture, and digital innovation. The study has empirically confirmed how to flourish a mechanism of the digital innovation in the SMEs. Moreover, the findings suggest some substantial implications for the management by focusing on the digital capabilities and digital organizational culture as a fundamental predictor for the digital innovation via organizational readiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the legitimacy of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis for a group of seven (G7) countries over the period 1995–2015. In addition to testing the EKC speculation, the authors also would like to understand the ways in which increases in renewable energy consumption and the international tourism receipt affect the CO2 emissions in G7 countries, because the energy and tourism sectors may have considerable direct impacts on CO2 emissions. In this investigation, a panel bootstrap cointegration test and an augmented mean group (AMG) estimator were applied. The empirical findings indicate that the tourism-induced EKC hypothesis is valid only for France. Additionally, it was detected that a rise in renewable energy consumption has a negative (reduction) impact on CO2 emissions in France, Italy, the UK, and the US. However, an increase in the receipt of international touristm has a positive (additional) impact on Italy's CO2 emissions. Hence, this country's decision-makers should re-review their tourism policy to adopt a renewable-inclusive one for sustainable tourism and the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]