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Globally, nations are increasingly focusing on green innovation in their environmental protection efforts as part of sustainable development, and digital finance is playing a vital role in enhancing green innovation. Employing annual data from 220 prefecture-level cities between 2011 and 2019, we empirically analyze the connections among environmental performance, digital finance, and green innovation via the Karavias panel unit root test with structural breaks, the Gregory-Hansen structural break cointegration test and pooled mean group (PMG) estimation. The following four points are the key conclusions: (1) The results support cointegration links between these variables when structural breaks are considered. (2) The PMG estimation outcomes indicate that green innovation and digital finance may have a favorable long-term effect on environmental performance. (3) For better environmental performance and more green innovation, the level of digitalization of digital finance is crucial. (4) The potential of digital finance and green innovation to improve environmental performance has not been fully realized in the western region of China., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Owing to economics are usually linked with energy production, economic policy may have an instantaneous adjustment according to the current monetary, financial, cultural circumstances. This research thus investigates the dynamic co-movement as well as cointegration relationships between economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and disparate energy productions, i.e., Chinese coal, natural gas, crude oil, electricity as well as renewable energy, during the period from January 1995 to October 2019 in China. We compare the two EPU indices and make empirical and robust analysis to get more evidence for the time-varying co-movement between energy production and EPU. The empirical results show that there are stationary properties and cointegration relationships between energy production and EPU. By utilizing wavelet co-movement analysis in the time-frequency domain, our results show a significant positive co-movement among disparate energy productions and EPU at high frequencies, i.e., in the short term, but weaker co-movement at low frequencies, i.e., in the long term. Hence, the phase-difference series are mostly around the zero line, implying the variables behave to the dynamics of the co-movement with positive causality. Policy recommendations are offered in accordance with our finding., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

To investigate the effects of government environmental regulation and industrial structure changes on carbon dioxide emissions, this research analyzes annual data over the period 2003-2015 covering 30 provinces in China (except for Tibet) with the panel smooth transition regression (PSTR) model. The empirical results show obvious non-linear effects of environmental regulation and industrial structure on carbon dioxide emission. Taking the effects of both linearity and non-linearity into consideration, environmental regulation will reduce carbon emissions with the change of industrial structure rationalization (SR). When the level of industrial structure optimization (SH) is low, environmental regulation promotes carbon dioxide emissions. When the level of industrial structure optimization (SH) is high, environmental regulation plays a significant inhibitive role on carbon dioxide emissions. The Kuznets relationship between GDP per capita (PGDP) and carbon dioxide emissions is influenced by local industrial structure rationalization and industrial structure optimization. Therefore, environmental regulation policies suitable for local conditions should be made based on the transition of the local industrial structure.

In the context of significant environmental changes, the urgency of adopting green innovation has become increasingly apparent as a central mechanism for adjusting industrial structures in China. This transition serves not only as a crucial way to address pressing environmental challenges, but also as a fundamental strategy to improve the ecological efficiency of urban areas. Existing research mainly keeps a close eye on the unidirectional relationship between variables such as technological innovation and environmental protection. There is less relevant literature that has researched the cointegration relationship among green innovation, industrial structure, and eco-efficiency of cities. The essential role of green innovation and industrial structure in reaching a higher eco-efficiency of city are discussed in this research and the relationship among these three variables are analyzed by the evidence from cities in China from 2011 to 2019. The fact that the variables are cointegrated in the long run is evidenced by the results for the full sample. The sub-sample results report that in the eastern region, green innovation, industrial structure upgrading, and industrial structure rationalization could improve urban eco-efficiency. However, in Midwest regions where economic development is relatively backward, green innovation's effect on urban eco-efficiency is not in a significant positive way. The results obtained in this paper have implications for different cities in China to formulate corresponding policies on green innovation, industrial structure, and urban eco-efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental pollution is an important factor affecting the sustainable development of a country or region. Therefore, it is of great theoretical and practical significance to deeply study and judge the decoupling relationship between economic growth and environmental pollution. On the basis of 31 provinces in China, the present paper decomposes the decoupling elastic coefficient into scale decoupling elasticity, technical decoupling elasticity, and structural decoupling elasticity by log mean divisia index and analyzes the decoupling relation between economic growth and environmental pollution from 2001 to 2015. We also evaluate the degree of the decoupling in time and space for various provinces. The results show economic growth has decoupled from industrial waste water emissions; industrial solid waste has gradually gained some improvement; the decoupling state between economic growth and industrial exhaust is unstable; and the increasing economic scale is the key driver for environmental pollution. However, the evidence also shows that technology plays a positive role in the decoupling. From analysis of the spatial pattern of decoupling, almost all developed areas in the eastern coastal region have achieved decoupling, while decoupling in the middle and western regions is unstable. Finally, the revision of The Law of the People's Republic of China on Energy Conservation has played a certain role on the decoupling of economic growth and environmental pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political incentive is one of the most efficient methods to promote local officials to push for both economic growth and environmental progress in the context of China. Since previous scholars have never investigated the relationships between political turnover and environmental governance at the municipal level, in this work, we proxy pollution by SO2, COD, SOOT, and NHx and examine whether environmental performance affects the political turnover of the municipal party secretary by exploiting a panel conditional logit with a fixed-effect model for the period 2002-2013. The results indicate that environmental performance does not significantly impact the turnover of municipal party secretaries, offering evidence that an increase of SO2 is associated with the likelihood of promotion under the panel multinomial logit approach. However, a higher GDP growth rate plays the determinant factor affecting the promotion of China’s municipal party secretaries. Specific policy recommendations are proposed in accordance with our empirical findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employing data of one belt one road (OBOR) countries from 2002 to 2013, this study compares the contagious corruption difference between geographic border and distance through the dynamic spatial econometric model. The empirical results not only confirm that corruption in OBOR countries exists under various contagious channels, but also indicate that border effects, serving as contagious channels for corruption, are better than distance effects. The empirical implication is that OBOR countries with a common border tend to possess contagious corruption due to the hosts’ demonstration effect and the convenience of transferring illegal assets. We advise that those OBOR countries should enhance the supervision of cash flow, look for any opportunity of kicking back a portion of the stolen money, and establish a specific task force on corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theoretical studies suggest that there is a close association between fiscal decentralization and economic growth. However, whether this linkage holds in China or not is a matter of ongoing debate in recent empirical studies. In this paper, we investigate the impact of the 1994 tax sharing system on economic growth in China. Using a panel dataset for 29 provinces in China over the 1995-2014 period in a simultaneous equations system that controls for the simultaneity of fiscal decentralization, physical capital accumulation and economic growth, the influence of decentralization on economic growth is estimated. The estimation results indicate that there is an inverted-U shaped relationship between fiscal decentralization and economic growth. Because the optimal level of fiscal decentralization that maximizes economic growth is higher than the data for most provinces, further decentralization is in general helpful to China's economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green innovation is essential for human beings to balance growth and climate change mitigation. The corruption-green innovation nexus has been studied by two existing studies, but the relative weak econometrical work and the lack of exploration in the context of inter-government cooperation on global climate change call for a revisited investigation. Our research robustly tests and confirms that corruption has a significantly negative effect on green innovation, which overturns the opposing conclusion of the previous global examination. Moreover, we find that the signing of international environmental agreements (IEAs) mitigates corruption's negative effect in the short term, whereas IEA's entry into force deteriorates this hindering impact in the long term. Such a divergence may originate from a change in the expectation of economic entities in the government's enforcement quality of environment policies issued for meeting IEA's emission target. Lastly, we provide several suggestions for dealing with climate change more effectively from the perspective of global governance. • We investigate the relationship between corruption and green innovation. • The data span covers 162 countries from 1970 to 2019. • Corruption has a significant negative impact on green innovation performance. • The signing of the IEA remits this negative effect in the short term, while it tends to deteriorate it in the long term. • This divergence originate from a change in the expectation of economic entities in the government's enforcement quality of environment polices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the relationship between environmental performance, corruption and economic growth using panel data of 87 countries covering the period from 2002 to 2012. The Environmental Performance Index is used for the first time to evaluate the environmental quality on economic growth. By employing both ‘static’ and ‘dynamic’ panel models, we find that environmental performance is positively related to economic growth and is more significant in non-Organization for Economic Cooperation Development (OECD) countries. Moreover, when corruption is incorporated, the empirical estimation results indicate that although lower corruption helps economic growth in non-OECD countries, the negative coefficients of the three interactive terms show that the positive effect of environment performance on economic growth will drop, while greater environmental performance combined with natural resource abundance inevitably leads to inefficient bureaucracies and hence disadvantageous economic growth. As a result, policymakers in non-OECD countries should carefully ensure better government quality when they exhibit strong environmental performance so as to avoid any disadvantageous impact upon economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlike most previous works which commonly define globalization as a strict economic characteristic, using the overall globalization index and its three sub-dimensions – economic, social and political integrations to proxy openness, this paper examines the effect of globalization on economic growth associated with autocratic institutional in China, using the a two-step dynamic panel generalized method of moments technique in a panel of 30 provinces, municipalities and the autonomous regions over the period of 1970–2006. We find that different globalization indices have different impacts on regional economic growth. Also, autocracy may harm regional development, but these conclusions are very sensitive to different globalization variables specifications. Further, considering the interactive effects between globalization and economic growth, we show that in the period of higher global integration, the higher democracy (lower autocracy) may harm economic growth in the case of China. We emphasize that democracy is clearly not a necessary condition for the purpose of economic growth in China. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We examine the relationship between natural disasters, political risk and insurance market development in a panel of 39 countries over the period 1984-2009 using a dynamic panel two-step system generalised method of moments model. We provide evidence that the incidences of natural disasters and deaths caused by natural disasters lead to greater total insurance, as well as life insurance and non-life insurance consumption. We also find that countries with lower levels of political risk experience higher insurance consumption. The incidences of natural disasters and deaths attributable to natural disasters contribute to insurance market development under the tenure of a government with lower levels of political risk. We therefore emphasise that natural disasters, political risk and their interaction effects are important determinants of insurance market development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to explore the role of globalization (the overall level as well as its three dimensions of economic, social, and political integration) in promoting economic growth and examine if the incumbent political party influences the relation between the two variables. We attempt to investigate the evidence of long-run equilibrium in terms of the relationship between globalization and economic growth in the period 1990-2006 while also considering the influences of the incumbent political party. In this paper we thus divide Europe into two groups based on political regime characteristics, using ten former communist countries (FCCs) and eighteen Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) members as the study samples. The results of our empirical test confirm our expectations that globalization contributes to economic growth, but it is also sensitive to specific institutional factors, like an incumbent political party. Globalization has a larger impact on real gross domestic product per capita in FCCs than in OECD countries. Although the FCCs and OECD countries are in geographic proximity, the difference in their level of economic development is very large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The secularization thesis is based on the idea that a country becomes more secular as it becomes richer and more industrialized. In order to investigate whether this hypothesis is valid, we examine the relationship between religion in Taiwan and economic development across 23 counties by adopting the panel data approach for the period 1998 to 2003. We select six religious activity proxy variables and five economic development variables in a cross-county panel data framework. The evidence indicates that the ratio of females to males has a significantly positive effect and that the literacy rate and population density each have a significantly negative effect on the religious variables. Finally, except for the Christian culture, the unemployment rate has a positive effect on the religious variables. Our findings thus support the view that the religious secularization hypothesis is valid in Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization is commonly defined as a strict economic path by most previous works, but it is really a fuzzy concept with unrestrained dimensions. While the ideological location of an incumbent political party is a powerful predictor of its policy position, the role of a political party in the globalization-growth nexus has never been fully empirically investigated. By applying Pedroni's panel cointegration technique instead of a time-series or traditional panel data approach, this paper aims to empirically re-examine the co-movement and the causal relationship among economic growth, the overall globalization index, and its three main dimensions—economic, social, as well as political integrations—by using panel data for 23 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries for 1970 to 2006. Certainly, the political party variable is taken into account as the advanced test is promoted, and we finally discover that all variables move together in the long run. Based on the results of the panel causality test, though the evidence of short-run causality is very weak, it does show long-run unidirectional causality running from the overall index of globalization, economic globalization, and social globalization to growth. Finally, the critical role of the political party is deeply discussed in relation with our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine state income and government spending data to investigate the role of political parties and elections in state business cycles of the United States, and find strong support for the partisan political business cycles, both traditional and rational versions. The growth rate of per capita real income and government spending tend to be higher (lower) with a Democratic (Republican) governor as well as a Democratic (Republican) president. In case of economic growth, we find some evidence for opportunistic cycles induced by national level politics; meanwhile, both national and state governments seem to generate expansionary policy in election years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A main focus of this paper is our analysis of the vote function using the vote share of government parties as the proxy variable for government popularity. Utilising Pedroni's (1999 ) panel cointegrated test and the fully modified OLS (FMOLS) technique, we empirically examine the long-run co-movement relationship in a bivariate model between government popularity and macroeconomic outcomes as well as a lag term in accordance with updated data for 11 countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) during the 1975-2005 period. The results indicate the existence of panel cointegration relationships in our empirical model. The panel FMOLS shows that several macroeconomic shocks are responsible for positive contributions to government popularity, especially in regard to economic growth and government expenditures. By contrast, currency depreciation, higher interest payments, and a greater taxation burden on households all contribute to lower government support in our sample countries. Based on such evidence, important policy implications emerge for ECOWAS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies the new heterogeneous panel cointegration technique to re-investigate the long-run comovements and causal relationships between tourism development and economic growth for OECD and nonOECD countries (including those in Asia, Latin America and Sub-Sahara Africa) for the 1990–2002 period. On the global scale, after allowing for the heterogeneous country effect, a cointegrated relationship between GDP and tourism development is substantiated. It is also determined that tourism development has a greater impact on GDP in nonOECD countries than in OECD countries, and when the variable is tourism receipts, the greatest impact is in Sub-Sahara African countries. Additionally, the real effective exchange rate has significant effects on economic growth. Finally, in the long run, the panel causality test shows unidirectional causality relationships from tourism development to economic growth in OECD countries, bidirectional relationships in nonOECD countries, but only weak relationships in Asia. Our empirical findings have major policy implications. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper considers the possibility of both a linear effect and nonlinear effect of energy consumption on economic growth, using data for the period 1955–2003 in Taiwan. We find evidence of a level-dependent effect between the two variables. Allowing for a nonlinear effect of energy consumption growth sheds new light on the explanation of the characteristics of the energy-growth link. We also provide evidence that the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth in Taiwan is characterized by an inverse U-shape. Some previous studies support the view that energy consumption may promote economic growth. However, the conclusion drawn from the empirical findings suggests that such a relationship exists only where there is a low level of energy consumption in Taiwan. We show that a threshold regression provides a better empirical model than the standard linear model and that policy-makers should seek to capture economic structures associated with different stages of economic growth. It is also worth noting that the energy consumption threshold was reached in the case of Taiwan in the world energy crises periods of 1979 and 1982. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Using panel data unit root tests and panel cointegration tests, as well as estimation techniques appropriate for heterogeneous panels such as the full modified OLS, this paper re-examines the long-run co-movement and the causal relationship between GDP and social security expenditure in a bivariate model, employing data on 25 OECD countries from 1980 to 2001. Our cointegration test results show strong evidence in favour of the existence of a long-run equilibrium cointegrating relationship between GDP and social security expenditure after allowing for a heterogeneous country effect. Regarding the panel-based error correction model, we find that GDP and social security expenditure lack short-run causality, but reveal the existence of long-run bidirectional causality. This shows that, in the long run, economic growth must be based on a social welfare policy that should be carried out, and economic growth can facilitate contiguous development in a social welfare policy. Lastly, we also provide evidence to support that social security expenditure can affect growth through the savings and human capital accumulation in OECD countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper examines the influence of government ideology, political institutions and globalization on the choice of exchange rate regime via panel multinomial logit approach using annual data over the period of 1974–2004 in a panel of 180 countries: 26 developed and 154 developing. We provide evidence that government ideology, political institutions and globalization are important determinants of the choice of exchange rate regime. In particular, we find that left-wing governments, democratic institutions, central bank independence and financial development increase the likelihood of choosing a flexible regime, whereas more globalized countries have a higher probability of implementing a fixed regime. More importantly, we find that political economy factors have different effects on the choice of exchange rate regime in developed and developing countries. All our results are robust to panel ordered probit model. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract Natural resources, especially forests, are critical to China's sustainable development. In recent years, effective utilization of forest resources has become a significant concern in China. In this study, on the basis of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis, the relationship between forest resources and economic growth is examined using panel data from 30 provinces in China for the period 2002–2015 and the generalized method of moments (GMM) approach to control for potential endogeneity. The empirical results indicate that with continuous economic growth, the timber output and area of afforestation would at first increase and then decrease after reaching the corresponding turning points. Given the considerable regional gap in economic and social development, three regions of China were investigated to perform a more in-depth analysis. Evidence observed for the country and the three regions suggests an EKC for forest resources. These findings indicate positive effects of China's pursuit of a more balanced growth path where forest resources would be less consumed and more actively protected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]