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This research investigates the role of China's exchange rate policy uncertainty in manufacturing corporate performance using the fixed effect model and quantile regression model. The findings indicate that an exchange rate policy fluctuation constrains better-performing corporates, but is adverse for those with inferior performance. Government subsidy appears to explain the positive impact, and the effect is enhanced or alleviated somehow by corporate governance, growth, and financial constraints. Exchange rate policy fluctuation also significantly pushes corporates to adjust and upgrade their business, which improves their performance accordingly. Additionally, positive shocks significantly stimulate corporate performance, while negative shocks including global financial crisis and COVID-19 epidemic hinder corporate development. Overall, the risk confrontation ability of Chinese manufacturing enterprises presents a positive upward trend. The China government should thus issue more positive exchange rate policies that could send positive signals to the market and increase the openness of its manufacturing industry. More corporate-friendly policies can be launched, such as adjusting the amount of subsidies for manufacturing enterprises in a timely manner and helping manufacturing enterprises, especially more mature ones, deal with exchange rate policy uncertainty risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is commonly argued in what is termed the degrowth strategy that economic growth cannot occur side by side with environmental protection. In this study, it is instead argued that the spread of green products through economic complexity and international trade are possible means of solving this problem. To this end, the individual and interactive environmental impacts of economic complexity and international green trade are examined in a panel of 24 European Union nations between 2000 and 2018. Panel quantile regressions (QRs) and Driscoll‐Kraay fixed effect‐OLS regressions are employed in analysing the relationships. The findings reveal that both green trade and economic complexity have beneficial individual effects on the environment. Their interaction effect further confirms that they have a complementary synergistic impact on the environment of the 24 EU countries. It thus implies that both green trade and economic complexity act better together than separately. Countries interested in achieving sustainable environment can do so by raising local productive capabilities, such that they are able to quickly transition into the production of technology‐intensive, eco‐friendly items. Alternatively, they can also explore the unique benefits provided by international trade in green products in cases where they do not have the ability to locally produce certain green goods. Better still, they can pursue both objectives simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital financial inclusion (DIFI) exerts vital influence on poverty alleviation in China, thus developing digital financial inclusion may provide new approaches to inclusive growth and create more possibilities for the sustainable development with extending the coverage and usage concerning financial services. This research explores how poverty alleviation is impacted by digital financial inclusion derived from the provincial data of China from 2011 to 2019. The results show that digital financial inclusion can make considerable contributions to poverty alleviation significantly. We conduct heterogeneity analysis with quantile regression conjointly, which reveals that digital financial inclusion has divergent effects on users with diverse poverty levels. The results of mediation regression demonstrate that the income level and income distribution play a vital role in poverty alleviation. Moreover, based on spatial Dubin model, digital financial inclusion enhances poverty alleviation with a spillover effect, which correlates with a "U" non-linear relation, laying a hidden danger of increasing poverty. Finally, we carry out IV regression to enhance the robust results, proving the reliability of this research's basic conclusion. [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]

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]

What kinds of countries are likely to be prosperous and have a sustainable environment at the same time? How might countries reorient their policy setting to be more capable of suppressing environmental degradation? To explore these questions, this research examines data from 99 countries for 2006–2017, takes the six major forms of ecological footprint (EF) as indicators of environmental quality, and probes the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis via quantile regression approach. We find that tourism development leads to greater environmental degradation, with tourism development particularly corresponding to more usage of carbon absorption land and cropland. The lower the country security is, the better is the environmental quality. Economic complexity also worsens environmental quality. However, country security weakens the negative influence of tourism development and economic complexity on environmental quality, specifying that better country security stalls the negative impact of tourism and economic complexity on environmental quality. Results mostly support the tourism- and country security–induced EKC hypotheses in fishing footprint, whereas economic complexity–induced EKC is generally validated in cropland footprint. Finally, we present that tourism arrivals, economic complexity, and country security have varying impacts across diverse ecological footprint quantiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research crucially investigates COVID-19 variables' impacts on the changing distributions of travel and leisure industry returns across 65 countries via a quantile regression model that uses daily data from December 2019 to May 2020 to provide early evidences from a panel of countries. We find that the change rate in COVID-19 deaths exerts more substantial negative effects on industry returns at majority quantiles than does the impact from the number of confirmed cases. The latter number only saliently and negatively influences the lowest return quantiles, revealing a nonlinear effect of confirmed cases. The study identifies a V-shape correlation between the number of cases recovered and travel and leisure industry returns (i.e. a negative impact at the lower quantiles, but a positive impact at higher quantiles) across return quantiles. This likely denotes that confirmed cases grow exponentially and that their effect may overwhelm the impact of the number of recovered cases. Lastly, this study presents a positive correlation between government response stringency index and returns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explores the effects of income inequality and country risk on CO2 emissions and examines whether the effects change across countries with different development stages or income levels. A new panel quantile regression approach is used to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the impacts of affecting factors on CO2 emissions at various quantiles, while addressing econometric challenges such as endogeneity and heterogeneity. From a global perspective, we can conclude that the marginal impact of inequality on emissions drops constantly with decreasing country risk at 10th to 50th quantiles, which even performs negative, whereas at the other quantiles, the marginal impact of inequality always remains negative. When we focus on the different income groups, the nexus of inequality emissions is negative first and then positive with decrease of country risk in low-income countries but shows no significant in low-middle- and upper-middle-income countries. Additionally, we validate the detrimental impact of income inequality in upper-income countries. Besides, country risk adversely moderates the nexus of inequality and emissions in low- and upper-income countries. Empirical results confirm that the nexus of inequality emissions lies in country risk, income level, and existing emission degree. These findings provide some important recommendations for policy-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research fills the gap in the tourism literature on the impacts of country stability—including political, financial, and economic—on tourism development (i.e., international tourist arrivals, international tourism revenues, and travel and leisure sector returns). To account for possible asymmetric and nonlinear relationships among variables, we apply a new method of moment quantile regression, by using panel data from 106 countries spanning the period 2006–2017. From a global perspective, the empirical results indicate that higher country stability generally leads to higher tourism development, while there is no salient influence of financial stability on travel and leisure sector returns. This suggests that the effects of country risk ratings are mostly nonlinear across different tourism development quantiles. Additionally, different components of risk rating scores have diverse impacts on tourism development. The findings mean that policy makers should consider their tourism condition when setting country stability strategies. [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]

This research explored the effects of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak on stock price movements of China's tourism industry by using an event study method. The results showed that the crisis negatively impacted tourism sector stocks. Further quantile regression analyses supported the non-linear relationship between the government's responses and stock returns. The results present that the resurgence of the virus in Beijing did bring about a short-term negative impact on the tourism industry. The empirical results can be used for future researchers to conduct a comparative study of cultural differences concerning government responses to the COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using an instrumental variable quantile regression technique, this paper assesses whether country risk and financial uncertainty exert an impact on energy commodity futures prices under different commodity conditional return distributions over the period from January 1994 to July 2017. We also discuss whether the correlations change with different dimensions of country risk, that is economic, financial, and political. The results reveal that country risk and financial stress do have a significant impact on energy commodity returns of futures contracts with different maturities, but their direction, intensity, and significance differ, caused by the distinct market situations and divergent channels of country risk. [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]

The investigation of the stationarity of renewable energy consumption has become a new branch of research in energy economics due to its importance in macroeconomics and environmental sustainability. Whether shocks to renewable energy consumption (which may be related to the implementation of energy policies) have permanent/transitory effects has yet to be explored. This study applies an extension of the quantile unit-root test with smooth breaks to examine the stochastic properties of renewable energy consumption in the US economy and the 50 states plus the District of Columbia during 1960–2017. Unlike traditional unit-root tests, which fail to reject the unit-root hypothesis, our results reveal that the unit-root hypothesis is rejected for the renewable energy consumption series of the United States and for 32 of the 51 states/district. In these cases, any policy for encouraging renewable energy will not be effective as the consumption will quickly return to its trend path. The evidence also reveals the presence of asymmetric responses to shocks for different states. Policymakers should consider these effects when they develop energy policy. For some states, where large positive/negative shocks have long-lasting effects on renewable energy consumption, the government should implement strong policies to further develop renewable energy and thus achieve economic and environmental sustainability. • We examine the stochastic properties of renewable energy consumptions. • The quantile unit-root with smooth breaks are used in the analysis. • The state-level analysis will be of direct policy relevance to the policymaker. • Results reject the unit-root for the US economy and 32 out of 51 states/district. • The presence of asymmetric responses to shocks for different states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research empirically explores the economic-, tourism-, and country risk ratings-induced Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis by employing ecological footprints (EFs) as indicators of international environmental degradation. To account for distributional heterogeneities across countries as well as possible asymmetric relationships among variables, we apply a quantile regression approach by using panel data from 123 countries spanning 1992–2016. Our findings partially support that income, tourism, and country risk EKCs (i.e., inverted U-shape relation) exist in grazing land and forest land, signifying that these 2 types of land are sacrificed (increased) and then shift toward enhancing more environmental protection lifestyles as GDP, tourism revenues, and country risk ratings further rise. Conversely, U-shape relations generally exist in carbon-absorption land, cropland, and fishing ground, implying that growths of tourism, GDP, and country risk ratings have shifted from enhancing more environmentally protective policies to encouraging EF-consuming lifestyles for these EF components. In addition, we uncover that income development is largely responsible for increases in EF, while tourism generally and salient decreases forest land and grazing land. We also confirm the income EKC hypothesis in European countries. Tourism increases (reduces) fishing ground at lower (higher) fishing quantiles, suggesting the asymmetric impacts of tourism across different quantiles. The political risk rating shows a mostly positive impact on EF than those of economic and financial risk ratings, denoting the important impact of a country's political rating on environment degradation. Overall, the findings herein advocate the need for analysis that considers heterogeneities across countries, different EF quantiles, and different EF components in the tourism-, economic-, and country risk-induced EKC estimations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green finance has emerged as a contemporary mechanism to support investments in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and sustainable infrastructure projects. This study aims to provide empirical insights into the asymmetric influence of green finance and business cycle fluctuations on energy development in 60 developing countries from 2000 to 2021. Four aspects of energy development, including energy access, stability, efficiency, and production gap, are examined using panel quantile regression with additive fixed effects. The research findings demonstrate that green finance plays a significant role in fostering energy development, with varying effects across different quantiles of the distribution. Specifically, the results indicate that green finance supports energy access and stability, particularly during economic recession, low-income levels, and limited technological advancement. However, the impact of green finance on energy efficiency exhibits notable heterogeneity, contingent upon technological and periods of economic expansion. Achieving tangible improvements in energy efficiency necessitates a certain level of technological and economic development. Moreover, green finance shows a capacity to maintain an optimal level of energy production, particularly evident during economic expansion and for highly technologically developed countries. The impact of business cycle fluctuations varies across different quantile distributions of energy development indicators, predominantly exerting an inhibitory effect of economic recession. In light of these results, it is recommended that policies in developing countries be revised to enhance energy access, optimize energy production levels, and promote the cost-effectiveness of renewable energy in conjunction with green finance initiatives. • Green finance promotes energy access and stability. • The effect of green finance on energy efficiency is mainly heterogeneous. • Green finance also mitigates the energy production gap. • Green finance's effect on energy development varies across business cycles. • The effect is more pronounced for countries with high income and technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]