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Achieving economic development and ecological protection simultaneously is an inevitable selection for sustainable development in today's world, so it is crucial to improve eco-efficiency (EE). According to Chinese panel data at the provincial level between 2010 and 2020, this research explores the nexus between green finance (GF) and EE. The results denote that GF can significantly improve EE, and the higher the level of EE, the stronger the effect of improvement. The upgrading of industrial structure, optimization of energy structure, enterprises' concern for environmental protection and the public's attention to the environment are all favorable factors that can enhance the promotion effect of GF on EE. Additionally, this facilitation can only be played under a good external environment and mature internal conditions. Our findings can provide new insights for improving EE by developing GF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital transformation of global economic and social activities brought about by advanced information and communication technology (ICT) may have a profound impact on sustainable economic development. This research measures the digitalization of the economy and society in cities of China based on Internet-related indicators and digital financial development and investigates the economic and environmental effects of their digitalization. The empirical results show that digitalization has significantly improved green economic efficiency (GEE), and this finding remains valid after a series of robust analyses. However, there is regional heterogeneity in the improvement effect of GEE. The green effect of digitalization is significant only in the cities with a high degree of economic servitization, capital-abundant cities, and eastern cities. Although digitalization has promoted the green development of the urban economy, it also has a negative spatial spillover effect on the GEE of neighboring cities. One explanation is that cities are shifting polluting industries to other areas during the process of digital transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the continuous debate about the foreign direct investment (FDI)‐inequality nexus, there is an acknowledged need for reconsidering their relationship from a new perspective. Therefore, applying balanced panel data composed of 60 countries from 1998 to 2014, this research estimates a finite mixture model with country risk as a concomitant variable to explore the interrelationships among FDI, inequality, and country risk so as to offer fresh insight into the FDI‐inequality nexus. We present evidence that shows a significant role of compositing country risk on this. Specifically speaking, FDI deteriorates inequality under the condition of high risk, whereas it alleviates inequality in a country with low country risk. Moreover, we can also obtain the similar findings by considering the role of components of country risk (economic risk, financial risk and political risk) as a determinant for the FDI‐inequality nexus. FDI deteriorates inequality under the condition of high political, economic and financial risks, whereas it alleviates inequality in a country with low political, economic and financial risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines the role of corporate investment inefficiency and abnormal investment behaviors on the effectiveness of monetary policy in China's transitional economy during 2001–2017. Using panel data regression models, we explore corporate investment inefficiency and its response to money supply and interest rates. We find that firms tend to overinvest and react abnormally to interest rates. Overall, the interest rate transmission mechanism is hindered and monetary policy becomes muddled. Our finding suggests that regulating the money supply or interest rates cannot help in coping with the dilemma between economic and financial stability until extensive financial reforms are made. Finally, we draw implications for overall financial reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the risk-sharing and risk-taking effects of multidimensional globalization and government regulation on multifaceted country risk by using a panel data of 77 countries over the period 1984–2015. To gain further insights into this issue, we also examine the roles of banking activities, economic development, and geographic regions on the relationship between globalization, government regulation, and country risk. Our main empirical results show that a higher level of globalization and less restricted government regulation of the financial sector significantly decrease country risks, supporting the risk-sharing hypothesis in our study. In addition, bank performance, bank concentration, and economic development play an essential role as conditional factors to influence the country risk. This finding offers several useful insights for policymakers and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the trade-energy literature by examining the effect of export product diversification on the energy demand of 30 countries located in the Global North over the period 1980–2014. A nonparametric time-varying coefficient panel data model with fixed effects is employed for its ability to produce robust outcomes in the presence of parameter instabilities, nonstationarity, regime shifts, and time variations. As a second step, the paper also utilizes the nonparametric fixed effects extension of Driscoll and Kraay, which is robust to spatial/cross-sectional dependence, as well as to autocorrelation and heteroscedasticity. The results indicate that export diversification lowers overall energy demand in the Global North, and the size of the impact has been on a gradual increase over the years. The paper concludes that if a conscious effort is made to ensure that product diversification is towards energy-efficient goods, export product diversification can serve as a useful strategy for managing energy consumption and mitigating its negative environmental effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Export diversification exacerbates income inequality for countries with low and medium levels of such inequality. • The findings show for those with middle and low levels of income inequality that higher political risk leads to more favorable export diversification, which helps reduce the income inequality. • The intervention of the political risk variable makes export diversification reduce income inequality levels at the middle quintile distribution of income inequality in both high- and low-income countries. • The influences of export diversification and political risk are more pronounced in countries with a high export diversification index. This research explores the non-linear relationship between income inequality and export diversification by a panel quantile regression approach, employing panel data from 90 countries during the period 2002–2014. First, we find that export diversification exacerbates income inequality for countries with low and medium levels of such inequality. Second, using political risk as the interactive item to study the link between income inequality and export diversification, we note for those with middle and low levels of income inequality that higher political risk leads to more favorable export diversification, which helps reduce the income inequality. Moreover, this paper shows that the intervention of the political risk variable makes export diversification reduce income inequality levels at the middle quintile distribution of income inequality in both high- and low-income countries. Lastly, we present that the influences of export diversification and political risk are more pronounced in countries with a high export diversification index. Our results provide policy implications to governments and future researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building a stronger modern socialist country is China's second centenary goal, and ecological beauty is the innovation of the connotation of modernization. How to realize the drive toward modernization with green development is an urgent topic. Based on the municipal panel data of the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2009–2019 in China and selecting the air circulation coefficient and river network density as instrumental variables, this research examines the impact mechanism of green development on modernization. The results show the following: (1) green development significantly promotes modernization; (2) green development indirectly promotes the improvement of modernization through technological innovation, foreign capital flow, and talent attraction; and (3) the promotion of green development to modernization is affected by the urban size, and medium-sized cities benefit most. The study results provide empirical support and a decision-making basis for promoting the win-win situation of green development and modernization construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from World Development Indicators (WDI), this research constructs panel data of 99 countries from 1996 to 2018 and employs a spatial econometric model to analyze the impact of air quality on international tourism arrivals. Evidence shows that Moran's I values are significantly positive, indicating a strong positive spatial dependence in each country and that poor air quality does have a negative impact on the number of tourist arrivals. The results of grouped data illustrate that middle-income countries, low-income countries, high concentrations of PM2.5, and countries with less numbers of tourists have negative effects on tourist arrivals in neighboring countries. The contrary groups, however, have positive effects on tourist arrivals – that is, the influence of air quality on the number of tourist arrivals exhibits heterogeneity. In addition, tests of the interaction term show that countries with higher R&D intensity have better air quality and thus attract more tourists. Therefore, countries with poor air quality should improve the environment through international cooperation and undertake technology transfer, thus ultimately increasing the number of tourists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy plays a vital part in stimulating economic progress, and the shift towards a cleaner energy system is highly significant for ensuring the sustainable development of the economy. China's energy structure urgently needs to be transitioned. The fast advancement and implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) has provided a new and important tool for promoting the transition of energy structure. So, what is the relationship between the application of artificial intelligence and the transition of the energy structure? This research introduces artificial intelligence into the energy sector, focusing on the relationship between artificial intelligence and energy transition. Since nonlinear models are better able to study the complex effects and phase differences of artificial intelligence. Using China's provincial panel data spanning from 2006 to 2019, this study employs nonlinear modeling to explore the stage differences in the process of AI in facilitating energy structure transformation. This paper derives the following findings based on empirical research. First, there is a U-shaped relationship between artificial intelligence and the transition of energy structure. Specifically, before the inflection point, the initial application of artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence may adversely impact energy transition. When the inflection point is passed, AI will help facilitate the energy transition. Second, the U-shaped relationship between AI and energy transition is more pronounced in coastal and non-resource-based regions. Third, energy intensity, government investment in science and technology, and informatization will moderate the U-shaped relationship between artificial intelligence and energy transition, changing the steepness of the original U-shaped relationship and even reversing it. Hence, it is imperative to effectively utilize the technological benefits of artificial intelligence through the development patterns and distinctive features of different regions, thereby facilitating the smooth transition of the energy structure. [Display omitted] • The role of artificial intelligence in the energy transition process is studied. • Stage differences in the role of AI are analyzed. • The nonlinear relationship between AI and energy transition is investigated. • Provide insights into the factors affecting the relationship between AI and energy transition. • This research helps the government to advance the energy structure transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing literature mainly focuses on the impact of information communication technologies on carbon emissions, but little attention has been paid to the role of the digital economy in transporting carbon emissions. This paper calculates the index of the digital economy through the entropy weight Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method and constructs the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2008 to 2017. By extending the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology model, this study explores the potential linear and non‐linear relationship between digital economy and carbon emissions in the transport sector. Empirical results show that the digital economy has the alleviating effect on carbon emissions in the transportation sector, and a change in the digital economy of one unit standard deviation resulted in a 6.14% reduction in carbon emissions. In terms of sub‐regions, the digital economy has a significant negative impact on transport carbon emissions in the eastern and central regions, while it is insignificant in the western regions. This paper further investigates the threshold effect of urbanization on the relationship between the digital economy and transportation‐related carbon emissions. The digital economy accelerates the transport sector's carbon emissions in the low urbanization stage, while it reduces the carbon emissions in the high urbanization stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines whether a destination's national culture has a substantial effect on tourism development. It focuses on six national culture proportions of Hofstede (2010). To account for probable asymmetric and non-linear associations among factors, the study tests a quantile regression by utilizing panel data from 101 nations and finds that most national cultures are non-linearly and statistically significant in explaining diverse quantiles of international traveler arrivals and international tourism receipts, whereas they do not do so for travel and leisure industry returns. We show that masculinity and indulgence negatively affect traveler arrivals, while power distance positively affects traveler arrivals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given China' rapid transformation, its economy is currently experiencing a change from a rugged development style to a sustainable development style with green development being critical to this transformation. Increasing green total factor productivity (GTFP) is now considered one of the significant signs of economic growth. With increasingly stricter environmental laws and regulations and a broad application of innovation capability (ICY) in modern life, this research investigates the impact mechanisms of both environmental regulations (ER) and ICY on GTFP, offering robust empirical results from panel data of 30 provinces in China covering the period 2006–2017. The results indicate that both ICY and ER effectively promote GTFP, but compared to ER, ICY has a heterogeneous effect on GTFP. Moreover, ICY plays a mediating role in ER and GTFP, while ER promotes GTFP through ICY. Accordingly, the paper puts forward some suggestions, such as to optimize and improve the ER policy, enact an innovation-driven development strategy, widely use ICY technology, and strengthen monitoring and supervision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this study is to explore the causal relationship among economic growth, economic complexity and CO 2 emissions by using panel data of 95 countries for the period 1996–2015. A novel panel Granger approach proposed by Juodis et al. (2021) is adopted. Under this approach, we can explore the Granger causality in homogeneous or heterogeneous panels. To uncover the heterogeneous causal effects at different income levels, this study further divide the sample into three groups according to their annual income levels. Empirical results show that there are bi-directional causalities among economic growth, economic complexity and CO 2 emissions for all groups. However, the magnitudes of the effects are heterogeneous for different groups. As to low-income countries, economic complexity is positive and significant for CO 2 emissions, while CO 2 emissions are negative for economic complexity. Furthermore, there is a positive interaction between economic complexity and CO 2 emissions for middle-income countries. Regarding high-income countries, however, increasing economic complexity might effectively reduce CO 2 emissions, and CO 2 emissions can significantly increase economic complexity. Additionally, economic complexity will prominently decrease GDP in low-income countries. These findings are robust to different economic complexity indexes. Our results suggest that both developing and developed countries should set a reasonable CO 2 emissions target, and on this basis, maintain a good balance between economic complexity and CO 2 emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing tourism- and happiness-related literature commonly investigates whether a happy destination does in fact render tourists happy and how tourist arrivals affect residents' happiness. This research thus first explores whether the host country and Twitter happiness indices influence tourism development in an international framework (i.e. tourist arrivals, tourism revenues, and travel and leisure sector returns). To account for intricate correlations among variables, the study employs a quantile regression approach on panel data from 119 countries spanning 2006–2017. Evidences find that most host country happiness indices and macroeconomic factors show salient, nonlinear, and asymmetric impacts across both tourist arrival and tourism revenue quantiles in concurrent and subsequent periods, except for European country results. Moreover, Twitter happiness index strongly affects travel and leisure sector returns, but has no impact on tourist arrivals as well as tourism revenues, implying the importance of social media happiness on said returns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in an open economy has gradually become an important source of green innovation (GI). With the rapid development of China's OFDI, this research studies the impact of OFDI on the country's GI, employing panel data of 30 provinces from 2006 to 2017. We first use the Super-SBM model to measure GI performance and then test the impact of OFDI on GI with the system GMM model. Evidence finds that the negative impact of OFDI on GI is not significant on the whole, but the results of regional regression show that impact of OFDI on GI exhibits obvious regional differences. We then utilize the dynamic threshold panel model to determine the non-linear relationship between OFDI and GI through the perspective of environmental regulation in order to avoid the bias caused by ignoring the impact of institutional factors and time dynamic change. After dividing environmental regulations into command control environmental regulation and market incentive environmental regulation, the research results show that the double threshold effects of both environmental regulations are significant. Command control environmental regulation does not play a role in promoting the effect of OFDI on GI. When the intensity of market incentive environmental regulation is low, OFDI negatively affects GI. Moreover, only when the market incentive regulation shows high intensity can OFDI significantly promote GI. With the continuous growth of China's OFDI, it is therefore necessary to determine the appropriate environmental regulation to improve the reverse spillover effect of OFDI enterprises on the country's GI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The trend of global warming has sparked a growing concern about the impact of climate change on food security. China is a vast country with different climate situations in each region. This study examines the impact of climate change on food security in China using panel data from 31 provinces and cities (1984–2020). Results show that climate change significantly affects food security, bringing more uncertainty risks. Agricultural policies can mitigate this impact by reducing production costs and improving farmers' risk resistance and motivation. Regional heterogeneity exists, with climate change having significant moderating effects on food security in non-food-producing regions and rainfall having significant effects in north and central regions. Relevant policy implications are suggested for strengthening climate change resilience, improving system design, and coordinating regional agricultural production. • A long-term evaluation of food security in China from 1984 to 2020. • Empirically analyze the influence of climate change in terms of temperature, rainfall, and sunshine. • Agricultural policies can ensure food security and reduce the impact of climate change on it by serving as a moderating effect. • Heterogeneity analysis of climate change on food security with regional differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research sets out to determine the nexus among economic complexity (ECI; which reflects a country's productivity), income inequality, and country risk and whether country risk affects the complexity-inequality nexus. By applying balanced panel data of 43 countries from 1991 to 2016 to a data-driven econometric methodology-finite mixture model, we provide fresh insight into this relationship from the perspective of country risk. The results indicate that the two-group finite mixture model is able to best fit our data, and that increasing economic complexity has no impact on income inequality in group A, whereas improving the structure of productivity mitigates the income gap in group B. Furthermore, country risk and the subcomponents of the former (i.e., economic risk, financial risk, and political risk) all exert effects on the complexity-inequality nexus. Specifically speaking, an increase in ECI is associated with more equal income distribution in a country with low country risk, while the improvement in productive structure cannot improve an unequal income distribution in countries under high country risk. Finally, it is noteworthy that the finite mixture model also captures information about the transformation of this nexus, with evidence demonstrating that 5 countries experience a variation in their complexity-inequality relationship over the sample period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is now the world's largest energy consumer, but severe air pollution problems have brought greater pressure to the production and development of its domestic economy. As an unavoidable result of air pollution, PM2.5 emissions are increasing. Previous literature has focused more on the impact of PM2.5 on the micro-level such as resident health and company location, yet macro-pattern studies between PM2.5 and innovation are inadequate. To bridge this gap, our research uses a spatial dynamic panel data model to systematically investigate the internal and external effects of PM2.5 concentration on innovation in China during the period 2001–2016. After forming a dataset of real-time PM2.5 concentration from satellite detection and using an innovation index instead of patents, we find a stronger spatial linkage between PM2.5 concentration and innovation. Thus, PM2.5 inhibits regional innovation significantly, and this result still exists after using the air mobility index as an instrument variable to alleviate endogenous problems. Lastly, PM2.5 concentration in neighboring regions also impedes local innovation considerably, indicating a spatial ripple effect of PM2.5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When exploring the logic why some economies grow faster than others, previous studies commonly assume that all economies follow a universal growth path. This paper explores the heterogeneity of growth regimes across economies and then investigates the decomposition bias of growth sources in traditional methods. Using a panel data of China's provinces, the empirical results show that a finite mixture model with three classes is best to describe the data, revealing that there are multiple growth regimes across provinces. Also, some provinces switch regimes over time while the others remain stable. Further, neglecting heterogeneous regimes overestimates the importance of factor endowment and underestimates the importance of sector productivity, while it does not greatly influence the importance of of factor market efficiency. In particular, the decomposition bias embodies in physical capital and energy input rather than labor. Our findings indicate that the existing literature may underestimate the contribution of sector productivity. Thus, it is critical to account for heterogeneous regimes when exploring the sources of economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic growth may be influenced by insurance market activity through risk pooling, financial intermediations, indemnification against losses, mobilisation of savings and provision of investment opportunities. Over the past few decades there has been increasing interest in the role of the insurance sector in the economic growth of Africa. This study examines whether there is a relationship between the continent's economic growth and insurance market activity (life, non-life, and total). Applying panel estimation techniques that are robust to heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence to a model of panel data for 11 African countries between 1995 and 2016, we find significant evidence in support of such a relationship. Total insurance penetration has a long-term impact on economic growth, and when disaggregated into its components (life and non-life-insurance penetration), we find evidence in support of short-term and long-term impacts on economic growth in both cases. Our study also confirms the feedback hypothesis, as we find a positive, bidirectional causality between insurance market activity and economic growth. We also find that the contribution from non-life insurance market activity towards economic growth far outweighs that of life insurance market activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs panel data of 36 countries over the period from 1980 to 2015 to investigate whether financial structure matters for the linkage between the insurance and banking sectors. Panel co-integration tests find that the significant relationship varies across different financial structures. Specifically, a developed financial system and market-based structure reinforce their long-run linkage. Panel Granger causality tests show that the market-based structure strengthens the insurance–bank nexus for the financially underdeveloped group of countries and that a financially developed system is conducive to realising a short-run dynamic linkage for a bank-based economy. More importantly, the linkages between insurance and banking sectors can be complementary or substitutive, depending on the relative importance of risk transfer and capital allocation in the insurance market. These findings offer useful insights into achieving the two sectors' co-evolution and further provide some evidence from the market-based and financial services viewpoints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Measure the energy and environmental performance of 260 cities in China. • Use China's smart city pilot policy as a quasi-natural experiment. • Evaluate the effect of smart city construction on energy and environmental performance. • Smart city construction has two important influence channels. Attaining a win-win scenario among economic growth, energy conservation, and emission reduction is an essential requirement for the transformation towards smart cities. This research leverages panel data from 260 prefecture-level cities in China between 2009 and 2020, applies the non-radial directional distance function (NDDF) for the quantification of energy and environmental performance (EEP), and harnesses the multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) model to empirically investigate the influence of the smart city pilot policy (SCPP) on EEP. The findings reveal the following. (1) SCPP significantly enhances EEP in cities of China. (2) Mechanism analysis indicates that SCPP primarily improves EEP by promoting economic agglomeration and driving innovation development. (3) The enhancement effect of SCPP on EEP exhibits a time lag and tends to decay in later stages, without exerting a notable spillover effect on EEP of neighboring cities. (4) The EEP of cities with lower administrative levels and insufficient resource endowments has experienced more substantial improvements under SCPP. This study offers valuable insights for developing countries with backgrounds similar to China for improving urban ecological environments and achieving sustainable development. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• NPZEC significantly promotes green innovation (GI). • NPZEC promotes GI through increasing fiscal support and economic agglomeration. • The effect of NPZEC is heterogeneous due to patent types and urban characteristics. • NPZEC has a negative impact on GI in neighboring cities. This study examines the impact of the National Pilot Zone for Ecological Conservation (NPZEC) policy in China on green innovation (GI) using panel data from 282 Chinese cities during the period 2011-2019. Employing a difference-in-differences (DID) model, we find that the NPZEC policy positively influences GI, leading to a significant increase of approximately 23.98% in the number of green patents in cities where the policy is implemented. Mechanism tests reveal that the NPZEC policy enhances fiscal support and promotes economic agglomeration, thereby fostering GI. Heterogeneity analyses indicate that the NPZEC policy prioritizes quantity over quality, with a stronger impact observed in western cities, low administrative level cities, and cities with lower economic development. Additionally, our findings highlight that higher public environmental attention and stronger intellectual property (IP) protection enhance the promotion effect of the NPZEC policy on GI. Lastly, the findings indicate that the NPZEC policy has a negative impact on GI in neighboring cities. Our study provides empirical references for policymakers to scientifically implement place-based policies and effectively promote GI in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the influence of country risks, including economic, financial, and political risks, on income inequality for a broad sample of 110 countries. Our empirical results reveal that higher economic and political risks generally lead to higher inequality. Lower income country appears to have higher income inequality. Furthermore, with the consideration of the non-monotonic effect of country risk, the improvement of income distribution is only sustainable dynamically after a certain threshold level of country risk has been brought down. Policymakers should improve the level of country stability by exploring the benefits of country risk reduction in order to improve income distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural activities immensely contribute to greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). This study investigates the heterogeneous effect of agricultural production (AGRIP) on three major GHGs emissions, i.e., carbon dioxide (CO 2), nitrous oxide (N 2 O), and methane (CH 4) under the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) framework using a balanced panel data of 90 countries from the period 1991 to 2019. Second-generation panel unit root and cointegration tests are conducted to account for cross-sectional dependence. The findings suggest that there is a long run equilibrium among target variables. Evidence from panel quantile regression suggests that AGRIP significantly reduced CO 2 emissions, and the effect is stronger in lower quantiles (least carbon emitters). On the other hand, AGRIP increases N 2 O and CH 4 emissions in all quantiles. However, AGRIP is homogeneously distributed across N 2 O quantiles while the effect is stronger in higher quantiles (high methane emitters) in the case of CH 4 model. Concerning agricultural trade, exports impede CO 2 emissions but increase N 2 O and methane emissions. Agricultural imports are positively associated with all GHGs emissions. The effect of agricultural trade is largely heterogeneous and varies across different quantile levels of GHGs emissions. The EKC is fully valid for CO 2 and N 2 O but not for the methane emissions model. Based on the results, it is suggested that high GHGs emitter should shift their agricultural activities from traditional to sustainable approaches along with green trade policies to achieve climate neutrality targets. • The method of moments quantile regression is utilized. • Agricultural production (AGRIP) decreases CO 2 emissions via carbon sequestration. • N 2 O and CH 4 are the main sources of AGRIP. • EKC is valid for CO 2 and N 2 O models but not for CH 4. • Agricultural trade increase GHGs asymmetrically and heterogeneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Using panel data for 241 cities at the prefecture level and above in China from 2010 to 2019. • Consider urban agglomeration planning as a quasi-natural experiment of regional integration and use a DIDs method. • Regional integration significantly improves economic resilience. • The policy effect of regional integration on economic resilience varies by time, region, and urban structure. • Urban size structure and industrial structure are critical pathways. Under the dual pressure of "slow-burn" challenges and acute shocks, increasing economic resilience is gaining attention around the world to ensure the security and stability of economic activities. With the goal of achieving sustainable development, the China is exploring an innovative, coordinated, green, open, shared and secure development path for the regional economy. Using panel data for 241 cities at the prefecture level and above in China from 2010 to 2019, this research considers urban agglomeration planning as a quasi-natural experiment of regional integration and use a difference-in-differences method to explore the effect of regional integration on economic resilience. The results show the following. 1) Regional integration does improve economic resilience after various robustness tests. 2) The policy effect of regional integration on economic resilience varies by time, region, and urban structure. 3) Urban size structure and industrial structure are important ways in which regional integration affects economic resilience. Our findings enrich the theoretical study of the relationship between regional integration and economic resilience and provide a new path to improve regional economic resilience and achieve sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of government ideology on energy efficiency using data for a panel of 23 OECD countries over the 1980-2013 period. With dynamic panel data method applied, our evidence suggests that government ideology is a significant determinant of energy efficiency. Specifically, we show that left-wing parties are associated with energy efficiency improvements. Overall, our results are robust to the two measures of energy efficiency variables, alternative measures of government ideology variables, using annual and 3-year averages of the data, the inclusion of economic and political variables, and to model specifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the literature has studied various factors affecting income inequality and the influence of energy security on the economy, knowledge is rather limited regarding the linkage between energy security and income inequality. Based on six indicators that capture four aspects of energy security including availability, accessibility, develop-ability, and acceptability, this research applies the dynamic panel threshold approach to explore whether they affect income distribution via global panel data of 68 countries over 2001–2018. The results support inverted U-shape impacts of energy security on income inequality with an improvement of economic development. Specifically, energy security tends to deteriorate income distribution in the early stages of economic development, while it improves income distribution upon reaching a certain level of development. Evidence also reveals that income inequality has a persistence effect over time. Previous income inequality enhances current inequality in a regime with low economic development, while this effect runs opposite in a regime with high development. These findings thus provide valuable implications to policymakers. • We assess the impact of energy security on income inequality for 68 countries. • Six indicators are used to capture four aspects of energy security. • Results show the inverted U-shape relation between energy security and inequality. • Evidence also reveals that income inequality has a persistence effect over time. • Previous income inequality enhances current inequality in low-income countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study revisits the long run and dynamic causal linkages between defense spending and economic growth in 15 selected European countries for the period 1988–2010 by utilizing recent developments in non-stationary panel data analysis. To this end, the series properties of per capita defense spending, per capita real capita stocks, and per capita real GDP are investigated by the panel unit root tests with and without breaks that support evidence on unit root. The panel cointegration tests with and without breaks are also subsequently employed to investigate whether there exists a long-run equilibrium relationship between these three variables. Finally, our causality analysis from panel vector error-correction model suggests that there is a feedback relation between real capital stock and real GDP in both short and long run, a one-way Granger causality running from real GDP to defense spending in both short and long run, and defense spending only Granger causes real capital stock in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study revisits the causal linkages between military spending and economic growth in China and G7 countries (i.e. Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the USA) by focusing country-specific analysis for the period 1988–2010. The panel causality analysis, which accounts for both cross-country dependency and heterogeneity across countries, is employed in this study. Our results find evidence of the neutrality hypothesis for Italy, France, and Germany, the military spending–growth detriment hypothesis for both Canada and the UK, and one-way Granger causality running from economic growth to military spending for China. Furthermore, we find a feedback between military spending and economic growth in both Japan and the USA. Thus, our results do not support that one size fits all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to investigate how foreign bank ownership in the banking sector affects domestic bank behaviour and whether this relationship depends on the economic and financial conditions of the host country. This paper contains 795 individual banks in 39 countries covering the period 1999-2006. Foreign ownership is calculated using bank level data as a proxy for the degree of foreign bank ownership in the banking sector. First, we find that foreign bank ownership is associated with a decrease in both the profitability and overhead expenses of the domestic bank after applying the system panel Generalized Method of Moments model. Second, a lower level of economic development of the host country enhances the positive effects of foreign bank ownership on the income, profit and cost of domestic banks. Third, financial development plays an important role in determining the effect of foreign bank ownership. Fourth, while the use of aggregate foreign ownership data may provide us with a big picture, it may not explain why individual banks in the same country perform differently, which this study will answer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the effect of life insurance on economic growth and what conditions affect the insurance-growth nexus. These conditions include the degree of financial development, private saving rates, interest rates, social security expenditures, income, young dependency ratio, life expectancy, and geographic regions. The main findings confirm the positive impact of the development of the life insurance market on economic growth. The insurance-growth nexus varies across countries with different conditions. For example, the positive impact on economic growth is mitigated in the middle-income countries, but amplified in the low-income countries. Moreover, both the development of stock market and the life insurance market are substitutes rather than complements. Based on our findings, this study offers useful insights for policy-makers and insurers. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper re-examines the stationarity of inflation rates in 19 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries with the use of cross-sectional information. We employ the panel unit-root tests that allow for cross-sectional dependency and the covariate point optimal test. These tests have high power in common due to the exploitation of cross-sectional information, and they can assist mutually to draw a concrete conclusion on inflation dynamics for all series in the panel. Our empirical results show that allowing for cross-sectional dependency rejects the null hypothesis that all series in the panel have a unit root, implying that there is at least one stationary series in the panel. With the help of the results of the covariate test, we can distinguish the panel into a group of stationary and a group of non-stationary series. For robustness, the two groups of series are re-confirmed by the panel tests. Our results reveal evidence of mean reversion in inflation for 15 of 19 countries, which is significantly stronger as compared to that obtained by the state-of-the-art univariate unit-root tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the stationarity properties and long-run relationship of Taiwan’s regional house prices from 1993Q1 to 2009Q2. It applies the recent unit-root test of the panel seemingly unrelated regressions augmented Dickey–Fuller (SURADF) test developed by Breuer et al. The empirical results illustrate that Taiwan’s regional house prices are a mixture of stationary and non-stationary processes, showing that the stationarity properties of these prices are dependent on the structure and properties of the various regions. Secondly, the findings of the cointegration test provide substantive evidence for a long-run relationship among all regions except Taipei City, implying a diffusion of regional house prices among each regional market except Taipei City. Finally, the results of the weak exogeneity test indicate that uni-directional causality relationships exist for three regions—Taipei County, Taoyuan-Hsinchu and Tainan-Kaohsiung—towards Taichung. The regional house price efficiently diffuses itself among these regions, caused by a much smaller public housing sector and the pre-sale system in Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: This article employs a state-of-the-art panel threshold model by allowing for regime intercepts, in order to shed new light on the asymmetric/nonlinear effects of local and global sentiments on expected industry stock returns among 11 Asian countries during the period from 1996 to 2010. Empirical evidence demonstrates that once the regime intercept is included, the asymmetric effects of global sentiment on oil & gas, financials, and health care industry returns become less under optimism, as compared with under pessimism. More critically, the positive (negative) impact of global sentiment above (under) the threshold turns significant, indicating that global optimism leads industry returns to be overvalued, while pessimism leads them to be undervalued. For local market sentiment, our results support that higher local sentiment enhances the returns of basic materials, telecommunications, and utilities industries. The empirical results confirm that the nexus of industry returns and investor sentiments is subject to change between different sentimental intervals. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]