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The COVID-19 pandemic, an unprecedented global health crisis, rapidly transferred into a global economic and social crisis. The pandemic has threatened the world's commitment to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 as governments in developing countries have shifted their priorities from attaining SDGs, to providing urgent financial needs to save lives and prevent recession in hopes for a rapid economic recovery. The rerouting of public funding priorities has undermined the progress and achievement of SDGs. We employed a mixed-method and carried out a comparative study using pre- and post-public financial data of two developing countries in South Asia; Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. A threefold analysis was conducted to investigate the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic in two countries, the impact of the pandemic on external and internal public finance and the effect of the pandemic in shifting the policy priorities from SDGs to economic survival. This study found that both countries are highly vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic and are suffering from the lack of financing from external sources through the private sector as well as an increasing foreign debt. There is mounting pressure on the fiscal balance in both countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The globalization of the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impacts is set to run havoc across economies in the world, throwing many into recession and possibly depression. The aim of this paper is to provide an overall understanding of the likely macroeconomic shocks of the pandemic on a diverse range of economic activities and indicators across economies. The paper covers implications to demand, supply, supply chain, trade, investment, price level, exchange rates, and financial stability and risk, growth, and international cooperation. The paper combines a unique theoretical impact mapping and supplements it with emerging evidence to develop the impacts’ likely progression and span. Furthermore, the paper uses a standard Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply (AD-AS) model of macroeconomics to explain the likely growth effects arising out of essential and nonessential goods markets and outlines necessary features policy responses should consider. Data and information to analyze the impacts are assimilated from different sources, including news and media publications, the OECD, and IHS Markit-CIPS. Assessments of this paper suggest that many economies are about to see a period of stagflation driven by demand and supply slump, increased unemployment, deflationary pressure, reduced trade flows, and disruptions in the supply chain, which may result in a recessionary period if not acted fast with innovative policy responses. As almost all economies are badly affected, a global growth recession is imminent if the pandemic continues. However, based on past experience of pandemics and epidemics and the current evidence, a U-shaped recovery pattern is the most optimistic possibility for most countries and the world economy. The paper could help policy-makers in understanding the pandemic’s broad-based impacts and policy needs to fight the imminent economic damage. Particularly, assessments with respect to the essential and non-essential goods markets could provide useful insights in designing appropriate policy responses to fight the pandemic. All considered, the paper calls for a collective and globalized response alongside standalone policy responses undertaken by individual economies. The assessments are broadly in line with the limited literature available on macroeconomic implications of CVODI-19 and could serve as a basis for advanced analysis on COVID-19 economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the interrelationship between CO2 emissions and economic growth in selected Africa economies from 1990 to 2014 providing evidence from both static and dynamic models. Results show that increases in energy use have a significant and positive effect on economic growth; which goes to show that growth in Africa is actually energy dependent. Further findings suggest that CO2 emissions have no significant contemporaneous effect, however, a significant and negative effect at a one‐period lag on economic growth. The significance of the impacts is consistently confirmed by both the static and dynamic estimations. Also, trade adds to economic growth and also contributes to environmental deterioration in Africa. There is a dire need for Africa to adjust its energy portfolio by shifting to clean energy sources which will enhance sustainable economic growth without deteriorating the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-life insurance companies are an important part of the financial system in any country. Constant development and financial sustainability of these institutions is key to foster the rapidly growing economic activities of emerging economies like Bangladesh. This study made an attempt to establish the impact of different firm-specific factors on profitability using the non-life insurance sector in Bangladesh. A thriving insurance industry, especially in the nonlife sector, can accelerate economic growth by mobilizing large funds and providing riskhedging services to economic activities. This paper investigates the temporary and permanent impact of different firm-specific factors on financial performance, using the case of the nonlife insurance sector in Bangladesh: one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Using panel data on 16 non-life insurance companies from 1999 to 2014, this paper utilizes both Static Panel Data (SPD) and Dynamic Panel Data (DPD) estimation techniques. For DPD estimation, a Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimator built on an ARDL Framework that can produce short run and long run impacts separately has been employed. In addition to the average impact generated from static estimations, this paper identifies the significant impact of all variables on profitability in the long-term (those of a permanent nature) while the investment ratio shows some impact in the short-term (those of a temporary nature). The results of the study indicate that the average impact is predominantly derived from the longterm and thus appear to be permanent in nature. Moreover, investment ratio contributes positively to profitability, mostly in the short-term (temporarily) with some effects in the longterm. The findings on liquidity and investment ratio suggest the permanent nature of their impact on profitability in the long-term and, hence, insurers are probably better served investing funds in short-term opportunities (e.g. investing in securities) rather than in longterm ones. Lastly, the empirical results regarding the impact of leverage is not clear, as it shows mixed impact in two different estimations, including the permanent nature of negative impact in the long-term. The non-life insurance companies of Bangladesh should implement strong policies to reduce the faulty underwriting procedures to improve the profitability. This paper offers significant contributions to the literature by separately identifying the 'temporary' and 'permanent' impact of several determinants, thereby producing novel estimations for Bangladesh that may have implications for other emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internationalization of banking institutions has been evident to a greater extent recently due to the advancement of technology and increased global inter-connectedness of the business world. As the ‘engine of economic growth’, banks are the dominant players in Bangladesh financial market following the global footprint. Due to quick market saturation, highly competitive domestic market and need for innovation, banks in Bangladesh are tending to move towards international market. While internationalization of Bangladeshi banks has been more evident in the last decade, its impact on the financial performance of the banks remains unclear and unexplored. Using six financial performance measures and five internationalization variables, this paper examines the impact of different internationalization dimensions on financial performance of Bangladeshi scheduled banks. The study estimates 18 models on panel data of 35 scheduled banks for the period from 2005 to 2014 utilizing panel regression with Dricoll-Kraay Standard Error, Prais-Winsten Panel Corrected Standard Error alongside Fixed Effect and Random Effect estimation techniques. Estimations were carried separately for ‘All Banks’, ‘State Owned Banks (SOBs)’ and ‘Private Commercial Banks (PCBs)’. As impacts appear largely heterogeneous, we calculate the net effect of internationalization. Findings suggest that the overall net effect of internationalization is negative for all banks while it is significantly damaging for the SOBs. On average, PCBs appear to have accrued positive benefit out of international banking operations. The paper also finds that physical presence in foreign countries, banks’ current level of internationalization and age of international operation have significant impact on most of the performance measures. While regulations specific to international banking remains very limited in Bangladesh, this research calls for immediate attention of the policy makers and regulators to facilitate the early stage internationalization wave of the Bangladeshi banking sector. This paper contributes to existing literature by: using new dimensions to define internationalization, using a wider and comprehensive set of six financial performance measures, being the first study on internationalization of Bangladeshi banks, and generating some unique findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the socioeconomic determinants of energy poverty in clean cooking in Bangladesh, through analyzing the factors that determine the choice of cleaner cook stoves and cooking fuels among different segments of the population. Ordered probit and ordered logit models are used to analyze a country wide dataset from the Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2019, to estimate the strength of influence of household characteristics on these choices. It was found that houses with more ventilation facilities tend to use less clean fuels and more primitive forms of stoves, whereas rented houses use cleaner fuels and technologies. Households with female or older heads have lower use of cleaner cooking solutions. Larger households use cleaner cooking less, but households with more and younger children use cleaner cooking more. Household wealth positively relates to choice of cleaner cooking solutions. Higher education and greater electricity access do not necessarily lead to movement up the cooking energy and technology ladder. Urban areas use cleaner cooking solutions more, as does the capital city area compared to other locations. Increasing the distribution of cleaner fuels and stoves across rural regions and among lower income communities is recommended for achieving the national clean cooking target.. • Determinants of cooking energy poverty in Bangladesh are explored. • Place of cooking and ventilation facilities affect choice of fuels and stoves. • Rural households in peripheral areas have lower access to cleaner cooking. • Wealth, renting and number of children promote use of cleaner fuels and stoves. • Gender, higher education and electricity access do not lead to cleaner energy use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic is producing significant economic and social cost globally. As a cure or a treatment is yet unavailable, social distancing is considered the key way to prevent it. Mobility restrictions and confinement measures implemented across the world are considered to help reduce air pollution. However, empirical examination of the link between public mobility changes and air pollution during the COVID-19 period remains unavailable. This paper examines the short and long run impacts of mobility changes on carbon monoxide (CO) emissions by employing three dynamic estimators on a panel of 35 countries covering daily data from 15 February to April 17, 2020 - a period when most countries went into strict lockdowns. Findings show a consistent evidence at the all-countries level and across regions that long-run indoor mobility increases reduce CO emissions, while outdoor mobility increases across places such as transit stations, workplaces, grocery & pharmacies, retail & recreation, and parks drive up emissions. Among the regions studied, Europe excluding the EU and the UK (−8.4%), followed by East Asia and the Pacific (−4.3%), sees a larger emissions reduction from increased indoor mobility. While short-run effects are limited in general, emissions in US-Canada respond to indoor and outdoor mobility changes in both the short (1.1%) and long run (−1.4%). Findings overall indicate that reducing unnecessary outdoor mobility could help in maintaining air quality in the post-pandemic world. [Display omitted] • Longer term lockdowns and mobility restrictions slow down CO emissions globally. • Europe experiences the largest declines in air pollution due to mobility restrictions in the long run. • Emissions decline due to mobility restrictions in the US and Canada in both short and long run. • Curbing people movement through more work-from-home could save the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the drivers of economic growth in South Asia region for the period of 1975–2016 using the World Bank data. Design/methodology/approach: Panel corrected standard error (static estimation) approach and one-step system generalised method of moments (dynamic estimation) approach are used. Findings: Both the static and dynamic estimations indicate that energy use, gross capital formation and remittances are the main drivers of economic growth in South Asian countries. The effects of all these variables are positive and significant. The extent of the effect of energy use is much higher than that of other two variables on the economic growth. A 1 per cent increase in the growth of energy consumption can expedite the gross domestic product growth by approximately 3 per cent in South Asia. However, the key variables, such as trade, government expenditure and foreign direct investment demonstrate no significant effect. Originality/value: The current research is original in the sense that it investigated the issue with a new data set using improved econometric techniques. Moreover, in South Asia as a whole, this kind of study is totally absent, particularly with panel data of a large number of years. Furthermore, this study has taken into account the problem of heterogeneity and the biases created by cross-section dependence, which were mostly absent in previous studies. Therefore, the findings of this research are new contributions to the existing literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]