Statistical investigation on the relationship between climate change, food availability, agricultural productivity, and economic expansion.

This study examined the connections between Benin's economic expansion, food production, agricultural productivity, and climate change. Using yearly statistics between 1961 and 2021, and R software version 4.2.2, we aim to: (1) Analyze how agricultural added value affects economic expansion; (2) analyze the effects of food production and temperature lagged values on economic growth; (3) investigate the different causality relationships between food production, temperature variation, agricultural added value and economic growth. To achieve these goals, statistical and econometric techniques such as Autoregressive Distributed Lags (ARDL) and the Toda-Yamamoto Granger causality framework were employed. The ARDL model verifies that there is a positive correlation between economic growth and the added value of agriculture based on empirical data. In addition, the Vector Autoregressive (VAR) model highlights the favorable impact of lagged food production values and the adverse effect of temperature fluctuations on economic growth. Granger causality analysis, employing the Toda-Yamamoto approach, unveils unidirectional links between food production and economic growth, as well as between temperature variation and agricultural added value. Interestingly, the study comes to the conclusion that there are no direct causal links between economic expansion and agricultural growth or between economic growth and temperature variance. Notably, bidirectional causality is established between livestock production and both economic growth and agricultural added value. These insights have significant implications for understanding climate change impacts on agriculture and suggest the need for adapted strategies to mitigate climate effects. Future research could focus on evaluating existing policies, exploring social and economic impacts, investigating market dynamics, and utilizing integrated assessment modeling to inform decision-making and foster sustainable economic growth in Benin's agricultural sector.

The impact of ASEAN economic community, firm characteristics and macroeconomics on firm performance and firm value: An investigation of Shariah-compliant firms in Indonesia.

The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) presents both opportunities and challenges to Shariah-compliant firms (SCF) that have particular rules concerning business activities and financial ratios following Islamic principles. The SCF has to maintain the ratio of interest-based debt to total assets as well as non-permissible income, where these restrictions may impact both firm performance and firm value, particularly in the AEC era. Therefore, the SCF has to utilize internal factors to strengthen the firm while also considering the external factor of macroeconomics. The purpose of this paper is to examine the internal factors-firm age, size and efficiency (FASE), financial leverage, foreign ownership- and macroeconomics affecting financial performance and firm value of SCFs, including the effects both pre- and post-AEC. This study applies structural equation modelling-partial least square (SEM-PLS) to analyze 103 non-financial firms that were continuously listed on the Islamic Shariah Stock Index (ISSI) from 2011 to 2020. The results showed that FASE and macroeconomics had a significant positive influence on firm performance. Moreover, financial leverage, foreign ownership and the AEC participation showed a negative effect on firm performance. In addition, there was a positive relationship between FASE and firm value, as well as firm performance and firm value of SCFs. Finally, the findings from this study may help stakeholders determine policies that involve both internal and macroeconomic situations, as well as the potential effect of the AEC on the enhancement of firm performance and firm value.

Spatio-temporal investigation of economic growth and environmental quality nexus in EU countries: New guidelines regarding green goods and eco-tax.

The issue of environmental degradation has become pertinent and the call for carbon neutrality has intensified in recent years. Achieving this target will require countries to meet the conditions of the sustainable development goals. To do this, the study applied spatiotemporal modelling and the generalized method of moments (GMM) to examine the nexus between economic growth (EG) and the load capacity factor (LCF) through environmental goods (ENG) and environmental tax (ENT) among European Union (EU) nations from 1995 to 2018. The findings demonstrate that spatial dependence leads to a change in EG and LCF that impacts the EG and LCF of the neighbouring countries. The study also found that there is a significant positive and bidirectional relationship between economic growth and load capacity factor. Moreover, the study revealed that a positive effect of ENG, ENT, REN and Human Capital Index (HCI) on EG, with a reducing effect from natural resource rents (NRR). Finally, HCI improves environmental quality, while ENG, ENT, REN and NRR degrade the environment. Our findings justify the need for EU countries and other developed nations to implement policies that will help achieve a green economic transformation.

What Are the Roots of the Nation's Poor Health and Widening Health Inequalities? Rethinking Economic Growth for a Fairer and Healthier Future.

Health inequalities are differences in health between groups in society. Despite them being preventable they persist on a grand scale. At the beginning of 2024, the Institute of Health Equity revealed in their report titled: Health Inequalities, Lives Cut Short, that health inequalities caused 1 million early deaths in England over the past decade. While the number of studies on the prevalence of health inequalities in the UK has burgeoned, limited emphasis has been given to exploring the factors contributing to these (widening) health inequalities. In this commentary article I will describe how the Government's relentless pursuit of economic growth and their failure to implement the necessary regulatory policies to mitigate against the insecurity and health effects neoliberal free market capitalism (referred to as capitalism herein) causes in pursuit of innovation, productivity and growth (economic dynamism) is one key driver underpinning this social injustice. I contend that if the priority really is to tackle health inequalities and ensure health for all then there is an imperative need to move beyond regulation alone to mitigate the worst effects of capitalist production; the goal of the economy has to change to fully restore the balance between economic growth and public health.

Forecasting synergistic pathways between rare earth elements, renewable energy, and product and economic complexities in achieving a low-carbon future.

Recent decades have witnessed an unprecedented transformation in the global energy landscape, driven by environmental concerns and the quest for sustainable economic growth. As the world grapples with the urgent need for decarbonization, the utilization of renewable energy technologies with the instrumental role of rare earth elements (REEs) has come to the forefront. However, empirical investigations into their synergistic pathways for product and economic complexities concerning achieving a low-carbon future remain scarce. Therefore, we forecast synergistic pathways between the REE supply, renewable energy, economic and product complexities, and GDP growth using a panel dataset of 11 REE-producing countries from 1990 to 2023. We used Common Correlated Effects and Temporal Causal Models as primary methods to estimate panel long-run elasticities and subsequently forecast mutual causal synergies between the variables. The results indicated that REE supply led to renewable energy and economic growth that further elevated the countries' product and economic complexities rankings. GDP growth increased REE production, economic complexity, and renewable energy directly, and consequently, product complexity and REE production through them. This underscores the positive role of REE production coupled with renewable energy technologies in achieving a low-carbon future based on economic diversification, enhanced industrial capabilities, and technological sophistication.

Does medial tourism promote growth in healthcare sector?

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of medical tourism revenues on the growth of healthcare sector across 49 emerging and developed economies from 2008 to 2022. Using panel GMM and PMG/ARDL estimation methods, the results show that higher levels of medical tourism revenues promote growth in the healthcare sector. This finding remains robust across different sample periods, alternative measure of healthcare sector performance, and model specifications.

Entropy and the Limits to Growth.

In its business-as-usual scenario, the 1972 Club-of-Rome report-The Limits to Growth-describes the collapse of the world economy around the year 2030, either because of the scarcity of natural resources or because of pollution. Mainstream economists, the high priests of secular societies, condemned it fiercely. Their gospel of perpetual economic growth, during which technological progress would solve all problems, promises a bright future for all mankind. On the other hand, engineers, natural scientists, and mathematicians realized that the breakdown scenario is due to the inclusion of the First and the Second Law of Thermodynamics in the Club-of-Rome's world model. According to these laws, nothing happens in the world without energy conversion and entropy production. In 1865, Rudolph Clausius, the discoverer of entropy, published the laws as the constitution of the universe. Entropy is the physical measure of disorder. Without a proper understanding of energy and entropy in the economy, all efforts to achieve sustainability will fail.

Public health events and economic growth in a neoclassical framework.

Public health events (PHEs) have emerged as significant threats to human life, health, and economic growth. PHEs, such as COVID-19, have prompted a reevaluation for enhanced regular prevention and control (RPC). In this study, we focus on the core concept of prevention and control intensity (PCI), and establish a neoclassical economic growth model from the long-term and macro perspective to balance life protection and economic growth. The model construct the mechanism of PCI on economic growth through population dynamics and capital accumulation under the backdrop of RPC for PHEs. We find the conditions for PCI when the economy achieves steady state, and provides an algorithm establishing the optimal strategy that maximises per capita disposable income based on the optimal PCI and consumption. Simulation result quantifies an inverted U-shaped relationship between PCI and capital per capita, output per capita and consumption per capita in the steady state. The model suggests that, given the PHEs of inducing potential unemployment shock, it is worthwhile to combine the implementation of moderate PCI with coordinated policies of income distribution.

Spillover impacts of financial development and globalization on environmental quality in ASEAN countries.

In the globalization era, the economic policy of a specific country might be influenced by the development of neighboring countries. Thus, this study aims to probe the direct and spillover effects of financial development, economic growth, and globalization on environmental sustainability in ASEAN countries during the period of 1992-2021. By applying three spatial regression models, the results are summarized: (1) There are positive spillover effects of financial development in neighboring countries on ecological footprint in a particular country; (2) Economic growth has a positive impact on ecological deficits in both the host country and neighboring countries in the short-run; (3) The expansion of globalization in neighboring countries has a negative spillover effect on the ecological footprint in a particular country and vice versa. Based on these findings, the study recommends that when a country formulates its economic policies, it is necessary to calculate the impact of that policy on neighboring countries and vice versa. Encouraging economic growth and expanding the money supply ought to go hand in hand with fostering greater integration. This integration is essential to counterbalance the potential adverse effects of these macroeconomic variables on environmental quality and ecological balance.

Catch-up growth with alpha and beta decoupling and their relationships between CO2 emissions by GDP, population, energy production, and consumption.

This study explores the relationship between CO2 emissions by GDP, population, energy production, and consumption in the United States, China, Romania, and Thailand economies from 1990 to 2019. It evaluates the phenomenon of catch-up growth, which transpires when an lagging economy goes through an expansionary phase after a period of below-average performance. We used the stochastic model to illustrate in terms of alpha and beta decoupling techniques. The outcomes validated by positive and negative decoupling attitudes play a crucial role in predicting a rise in CO2 emissions owing to oil, gas, and coal use in comparison to Romania. Thailand and Romania have a more viable road to sustainability than the United States and China. The United States and China appear to have an antagonistic relationship, as suggested by decoupling attitudes. Thailand and Romania are considered to be highly environmentally sustainable countries on account of their minimal carbon emissions, efficient energy usage, and forward-thinking environmental policies. Accordingly, policy recommendations are offered based on CO2 emissions and effective mitigation policies, since this allows for determining which countries with high emissions need technological advances, best practices, and intersectoral policies.

The complex interplay between sectoral energy consumption and economic growth: Policy implications for Iran and beyond.

Iran's abundant energy reserves starkly contrast with recent power and gas shortages, particularly impacting the industrial sector. Furthermore, long-term trends reveal a concerning pattern where total primary energy consumption has outpaced economic growth, doubling in recent decades. These challenges emphasize the need for a thorough evaluation of the intricate interplay between sectoral energy consumption and economic output in Iran, bearing profound policy implications. The current study employs ARDL and VECM approaches to analyze empirical long- and short-term dynamics. Regarding Iran, the results unveil causal relationships from industrial energy consumption to GDP and from GDP to energy consumption in buildings. Notably the significant positive value of elasticity of GDP with respect to industrial energy use highlights the need for nuanced energy management measures. Variations across sectors underscore the justification for recognizing industrial energy consumption as productive energy use. The results gain additional support from a panel data analysis spanning fourteen diverse countries, bearing significance for IAMs applied in climate change research. While IAMs traditionally employ total energy consumption or the sectoral energy uses collectively, as production factors, the research highlights the need to reevaluate model frameworks for potential different outcomes from established practices.

The burden of disease and economic growth: The nonlinear effect of population age structure.

This study aims to detangle the impact of health on economic growth as empirical evidence shows a mixture of findings. We use data on the Burden of Disease (BoD) from the Institute of Health Metric Evaluation (IHME) to measure health capital and the economic data of 87 countries from 1990 to 2018. Using panel threshold regression, this study shows that the old dependency ratio is a good measure of the threshold variable, which divides the country groups into four. The BoD, whether it comes from communicable diseases (CD), non-communicable diseases (NCD), or injuries, has a negative impact on economic growth. However, the negative relation is somewhat diminished as the population gets older, demonstrating that the BoD's impact on economic growth is less pronounced for the older population than the younger population.

Assessing the drivers and solutions of green innovation influencing the adoption of renewable energy technologies.

The degradation of the environment in China is accelerating along with economic expansion. Adoption of renewable energy technologies (RETs) is crucial for reducing the adverse impacts of economic growth on the environment and fostering sustainable development. This study attempts to identify the green innovation drivers and sub-drivers that affect the adoption of RETs in China and provide solutions for boosting their implementation. The study prioritized the drivers, sub-drivers, and strategies of green innovation by combining the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Simple Additive Weighting (SAW) methods. In the study, the triple bottom line (TBL) approach has been used to determine the economic, societal, and environmental driving forces. The study also suggests strategies for encouraging the use of RETs. The results of the AHP method revealed that economics is the most crucial driver, with a weight of 0.376, followed by environmental (0.332), and social (0.291) drivers. The findings of the SAW method indicated that government green innovation initiatives, consumer initiatives, and industry initiatives are the most significant strategies for deploying RETs in China. This study has important theoretical and practical ramifications for encouraging China to adopt RETs. The suggested approaches can help researchers, business professionals, and policymakers promote sustainable development in China.

Green economic growth in BRIC and CIVETS countries: The effects of trade openness and sustainable development goals.

This study aims to analyze the impact of trade openness and Sustainable Development Goals, Financial Development, and Technology on the economic growth of Brazil, Russia, India, China and Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey, South Africa countries. The present analysis employs a balanced panel data set from 1996 to 2022. This study also uses various tests, such as the Johansen-Fisher cointegration and Granger causality test. The study's findings suggest that economic growth, trade openness, Sustainable Development Goals, financial development, inflation, technology, labor forces, and financial openness have a long-term relationship among them. In the long run, a positive relationship exists between economic growth, trade openness, and the sustainable development goals index in (BRIC) and (CIVETS) countries. Based on the heterogeneous panel non-causality tests, the findings demonstrate that trade openness and Sustainable Development Goals are a unidirectional causality between trade openness, Sustainable Development Goals, and economic growth.

Impacts of renewable and disaggregated non-renewable energy consumption on CO2 emissions in GCC countries: A STIRPAT model analysis.

This research investigates the effects of renewable (REC) and disaggregated non-renewable energy consumption (coal, oil, and natural gas) on CO2 emissions (CO2) in GCC countries, employing the STIRPAT model. The research also compares the impact of various non-renewable energy (NREC) sources to identify their contributions to CO2 emissions. Demographic factors like population and economic growth are considered main determinants of CO2. Panel data econometric methods are used, including diagnostic tests and unit root tests, to found long-run relationships among the variables. The study reveals significant positive associations between coal, natural gas, oil consumption and CO2, with oil having the highest impact. Conversely, REC shows a significant negative correlation with CO2. Economic growth and population are also linked to increased CO2. The findings emphasize the need for strategies promoting renewable energy usage, energy efficiency, public transportation, carbon pricing, and research in green technologies to alleviate CO2 and enhance sustainable development in the GCC countries.

How do R&D and remittances affect economic growth? Evidence from middle-income countries.

Sustainable development through technical progress for middle-income countries (MICs) is overlooked in growth allied studies. Despite their crucial role in alleviating poverty and resource shortages, MICs encounter challenges in global economic competition, driving persistent efforts to find practical solutions. Therefore, this study explores the integrated impact of R&D expenditure and remittances on economic growth in MICs. Using data from 25 MICs between 1996 and 2021, this study employs the "2nd generation unit root" and "panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL)" methods. The "feasible generalized least square (FGLS)" techniques and the "Dumitrescu-Hurlin (D-H)" causality test are employed to verify the robustness of the panel ARDL estimation. The Westerlund cointegration tests confirm a long-term cointegration between variables. The findings of the panel ARDL approach show that R&D expenditure and remittances positively and significantly influence economic growth. The robustness of the panel ARDL results is confirmed by the FGLS estimation, which produces similar outcomes. The outcomes from the FGLS and the ARDL methods are additionally validated by the D-H causality check. Therefore, encouraging R&D and remittances is crucial to accelerate middle-income nations' economic growth. The study reveals a novel mechanism of R&D expenditures, remittances, and economic growth in MICs, shaping their mutual influence on this economic landscape. The study supports middle-income countries' policymakers in creating effective policies for their financial institutions regarding R&D expenditure and remittances.

Examining the dynamic impact of carbon emissions, renewable energy and economic growth on healthcare expenditure in Asian countries.

This study aims to examine the impact of renewable energy, carbon emissions, and economic growth on healthcare spending in 36 Asian countries during 2000-2019. Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS) and Dynamic Ordinary Least Square (DOLS) models have been applied to the panel data for 36 Asian countries. The study's findings show that CO2 emissions in Asia increased due to public and private health spending, with the commercial health sector having a larger negative influence on CO2 emissions than the public sector. According to FMOLS and DOLS findings, carbon emissions and GDP are positively related to health spending, indicating that high economic growth through energy-intensive production processes leads to increased carbon emissions, but on the contrary, renewable energy consumption has decreased healthcare expenditure. This study advocates new policies to reduce carbon emissions and hospitalisation without jeopardising national economic growth. In order to achieve sustainable health services and an environmentally friendly future in Asia, health administrators must raise state and private healthcare spending while implementing an effective cost-service and energy-efficient management plan.

Financial globalization and economic growth amid geopolitical risk: A study on China-Russia far East federal district.

Geopolitics, natural resource efficiency and financial globalization have arisen as a new concept for low CO2 to achieve sustainable economic growth (EG). Therefore, developed and developing economies focus on Geopolitics risk (GPR), natural resource (NRS) efficiency and financial globalization (FG) to cope with CO2 neutrality targets. In order to understand the elements that contribute to achieving CO2 neutrality, this study sought to establish a relevant connection between geopolitics, the efficiency of NRS, financial globalization (FNG), and economic growth. For the abovementioned objectives, modern econometric methods, such as the canonical cointegration, CS-FGLS and GMM were adopted to evaluate the China-Russia Far East dataset between 1990 and 2022. In order to achieve CO2 neutrality in the long run, the study's elements are crucial, according to the results. In addition, GMM shows that each of the parameters affects CO2 neutrality. As a result, the ecological Kuznets curve rules the economic landscape, and long-term CO2 neutrality is greatly facilitated by geopolitics, efficient use of natural resources, financial globalization, and economic growth. Consequently, numerous domains necessitate far-reaching and revolutionary policy changes, such as economic integration to mitigate geopolitical risk, effective management of natural resources, efficient financial systems, and sustainable technology.

A double machine learning model for measuring the impact of the Made in China 2025 strategy on green economic growth.

The transformation and upgrading of China's manufacturing industry is supported by smart and green manufacturing, which have great potential to empower the nation's green development. This study examines the impact of the Made in China 2025 industrial policy on urban green economic growth. This study applies the super-slacks-based measure model to measure cities' green economic growth, using the double machine learning model, which overcomes the limitations of the linear setting of traditional causal inference models and maintains estimation accuracy under high-dimensional control variables, to conduct an empirical analysis based on panel data of 281 Chinese cities from 2006 to 2021. The results reveal that the Made in China 2025 strategy significantly drives urban green economic growth, and this finding holds after a series of robustness tests. A mechanism analysis indicates that the Made in China 2025 strategy promotes green economic growth through green technology progress, optimizing energy consumption structure, upgrading industrial structure, and strengthening environmental supervision. In addition, the policy has a stronger driving effect for cities with high manufacturing concentration, industrial intelligence, and digital finance development. This study provides valuable theoretical insights and policy implications for government planning to promote high-quality development through industrial policy.

Linking economic growth and international trade taxes in Turkey: A Fourier approach.

Revenues from international trade and transactions are crucial for the economic growth and macroeconomic activity of a country. For that reason, taxes from international trade and transactions are used to proxy revenues. Moreover, industrial production index is considered to be proxied for the economic growth. In this study, these variables are used monthly for the period of January 2006 and February 2022 for Turkey. First, different kinds of Fourier based unit root tests including flexibility and fractionality have been used to analyze the data structure. Then, linear VAR and Fourier VAR models have been estimated to reach and analyze the differences of the results of impulse responses between linear and trigonometric models. Finally, linear and Fourier term included Granger Causality tests have been used to question if there would be a difference or not. When the estimations and tests having Fourier structure have been established, the tests considering it have given more different results than linear models. Briefly, it has been shown that policy makers should shift their decisions to an alternative direction.