Assessment of role of green bond in renewable energy resource development in Japan

The main purpose of this research is to investigate the effects of issued green bonds and energy price volatility on the consumption of three types of green energy (wind, solar, and hydro) in Japan during 1990–2020. For this purpose, an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) estimation method was used. The main findings revealed the long-term positive impacts of issued green bonds and energy prices and the negative impact of geopolitical risk on the wind energy consumption. In contrast, geopolitical risk and energy prices have no significant short-term impacts on solar energy consumption in Japan. Solar energy and hydro energy experienced the most considerable impact from issuance of green bonds in Japan. Moreover, a unidirectional causal relationship runs from green bonds and geopolitical risk to wind, solar, and hydro-energy consumption. At the same time, a bidirectional linkage exists between energy prices and green energy (solar, wind, and hydro) consumption in Japan. As practical policies, Japan should try to develop green bond market and promote digital green financing tools that are more resilient and adaptable to the post–COVID-19 era.

COVID-19 and regional solutions for mitigating the risk of SME finance in selected ASEAN member states

The main objective of this paper is to identify the determining factors of the optimal credit guarantee ratio in four members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), namely Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Malaysia, by employing statistical techniques and the Vector Autoregressive (VAR) approach. The empirical findings prove that the loan default ratio is the optimal credit guarantee ratio’s main determining factor. The empirical findings confirm that the credit guarantee ratio needs to be increased in the ASEAN region to help SMEs survive in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and for the post-COVID-19 economic recovery. The results show that the credit guarantee ratio should vary for different countries based on the macroeconomic climate and for each bank or, in other words, for groups of banks with similar financial soundness. The practical policy recommendations are establishing a regional credit guarantee scheme (RCGS) and evaluating banks’ soundness for setting the optimal credit guarantee ratio.