Capital flight and public health outcomes in Africa.

Motivated by the momentous concerns over the development challenges associated with capital flight and the persistent lack of funding to improve healthcare in Africa, this study investigates the effects of capital flight on public health outcomes. Exploiting regional variations in capital flight stemming from differences in exchange rate regimes across CFA (Communaute Financiere Africaine) zone countries and non-CFA zone countries, I construct a shift-share instrumental variable to infer the causal effect of capital flight on health outcomes in Africa. The results show some headways toward considering capital flight as a potential threat to achieving better public health outcomes. This finding is robust to various robustness tests, including pre-existing trend analysis, falsification tests, heterogeneity analysis, and alternative instrumental variable specifications. The study demonstrates that government spending on health and living standards are the main routes through which capital flight influences public health outcomes.

Monitoring the spatial spillover effects of urbanization on water, built-up land and ecological footprints in sub-Saharan Africa.

Despite the considerable attention given to the environmental implications of urbanization, evidence on the role of urbanization in the ongoing biodiversity loss lacks from an African perspective. In this perspective, we explore the threats urbanization poses on biodiversity with a focus on water, land, and the overall ecosystems across 28 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries over the period 2000-2017. Specifically, we employ water, land, and ecological footprints as metrics to characterize human-induced pressures on biodiversity. Unlike previous studies, we demonstrate that urbanization displays heterogeneous effects on footprint indicators, and the consideration of a single footprint item may underestimate the impact of urbanization on biodiversity loss. The results show that urbanization contributes to the expansion of human-induced pressures on water and built-up landscape. Furthermore, there is evidence that being surrounded by highly urbanized countries increases the per capita water and built-up land footprints. These spatial spillover effects of urbanization should be considered when establishing pathways to conservation policies.

Environmental pollution and energy research and development: an Environmental Kuznets Curve model through quantile simulation approach.

Energy research and development (R&D) and environmental sustainability is often referred to as two interrelated trends, especially in the current context of the 4th industrial revolution. As a primary input of energy innovations, R&D in the energy sector constitutes a vital tool in addressing global environmental and energy challenges. In this frame, we observe the effects of disaggregated energy R&D on environmental pollution within the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) framework in thirteen developed countries over the period 2003-2018. By employing the panel quantile regression technique, we find an inverted U-shaped nexus between economic growth and carbon emissions only in higher carbon-emitting countries, thus, confirming the EKC hypothesis. However, the U-shaped nexus is more predominant in lower carbon-emitting countries. As such, we demonstrate that there is not any single dynamic in the relationship between economic growth and pollution as reported in previous studies. Contrary to expectations, we find that energy efficiency research and development is more effective in curbing carbon emissions compared to fossil fuels and renewable energy research and development. The empirical results indicate also that only energy efficiency R&D mitigates significantly the CO2 emissions from the 50th quantile up to 90th quantile, although the magnitude of the negative sign is more pronounced (in absolute term) at the highest quantile (90th). In this light, our findings would guide policymakers in the establishment of sustainable energy research and development schemes that will allow the preservation of equilibrium for the environment while also promoting energy innovations.

The co-movements between geothermal energy usage and CO2 emissions through high and low frequency cycles.

Geothermal energy is considered environmentally friendly than fossil fuel sources, and geothermal power plants are expected to have a low carbon footprint. It is renewable that can last million years. There exist, however, several gases stored under the earth's surface which are released into the atmosphere during digging (TWI 2020). This research paper aims at monitoring the potential positive and negative effects of geothermal on environmental quality (CO2 emissions) in the USA for the period January 1980 to August 2019. The paper employed wavelet and partial wavelet coherence computations to explore the impacts of geothermal energy usage on the environment. The concluding remarks from the estimations can be classified into short-term (1-3-year cycle) results and long-term (3-8-year cycle) results. It is found in the short term that (i) geothermal usage increased CO2 emissions during 1980-1983 and 1993-1997 and (ii) CO2 emissions caused geothermal usage to increase for the period 2000-2009 and after 2015. The paper reveals also that in the long term, (a) geothermal energy consumption increased CO2 emissions during the periods 1985-1990, 1993-1996, and 2013-2016 and (b) geothermal energy consumption decreased CO2 emissions for the period 1996-2008 in the USA. This research work eventually yields some relevant geothermal energy policy suggestions for US policymakers to make geothermal more environmentally friendly.

Human well-being versus ecological footprint in MENA countries: A trade-off?

How to improve environmental quality and achieve human development remains major sustainability issues, particularly in the MENA region (the Middle East and North Africa). Most of the empirical literature fails to consider human well-being and environmental quality together although these concepts are fundamentally similar in their concern for distributive justice. This inquiry uses panel data for 13 MENA countries over the period 1990-2016 to examine the association between human development and ecological footprint and test whether trade-off nexus holds between these two sustainability-based indicators. To increase the policy relevance of this inquiry, the MENA region is divided into two sub-groups of countries: seven oil exporting countries and six non-oil exporting countries. The highlights pointed out the presence of a strong trade-off between the ecological footprint and human well-being captured by human development index for the whole sample and across the two subsamples. The crucial role played by economic institutions may help the MENA countries to mitigate the trade-offs to achieve simultaneously both targets of human well-being and environmental protection. Our empirical insights have important implications for achieving human development sustainability through the pursuit of the individual SDG targets.