JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC STUDIES最新文献

Purpose

This paper aims to identify the key drivers of US sustainable stock price movements in both the short and long term, deploying a rich collection of variables corresponding to green finance, investor attention and sentiment, market fear and uncertainty, macroeconomic variables, common market risk factors, commodity markets and the carbon emission market.

Design/methodology/approach

The empirical analysis is based on two main methodologies. First, the elastic net penalized regression is utilized to select the factors most influential on the price formation of sustainable stocks. Second, short- and long-run dynamics of the chosen factors are examined using the dynamic simulations of the autoregressive distributed lag (DYNARDL) model.

Findings

Of 32 candidate variables, the elastic net chooses US renewable energy, European sustainable stock market, EU ETS emission allowances, public attention to sustainable finance, gold and European renewable energy as the most contributing factors to the price behavior of sustainable stocks. The DYNARDL estimation results reveal that US renewable energy, European sustainable stock market and EU ETS emission allowances are important determinants in the short and long term, while public attention (European renewable energy) tends to affect sustainable stock prices only in the short (long) run.

Practical implications

The corresponding short- and long-run effects of US renewable energy, EU ETS emission allowances and European sustainable stocks on US sustainable stock prices should induce policymakers to keep the price behavior of these factors under systematic review. The formulation of policy measures could serve to safeguard the sustainable stock market from the price vagaries in these influential markets.

Originality/value

Relevant literature often focuses on the reaction of sustainable stocks to mainstream assets and risk proxies, limiting analysis to a few factors and providing an incomplete understanding of the drivers behind sustainable stock prices. More comprehensive research is needed due to the lack of studies on the determinants of sustainable stock prices and the growing global demand for these investments. This paper aims to address this gap by examining the potential explanatory power of 32 candidate factors representing key players in the global economic and financial landscape.

Purpose

The recent Russia–Ukraine conflict highlights the geopolitical importance of natural gas, especially in Europe. In this light, this study examines the impact of the Russia–Ukraine conflict on the spread of price bubbles from European natural gas to international energy prices.

Design/methodology/approach

The Generalized Supremum Augmented Dickey-Fuller (GSADF) test is employed to detect the occurrence of price bubble episodes while the Dynamic Logit Model is used to examine price bubble contagion between the two markets. Further, a tri-variate VAR model is used to examine the determinants of the price bubble.

Findings

The findings reveal multiple bubble episodes in both European natural gas and international energy prices. Further, evidence of bilateral contagion between European natural gas and the international energy market is found. In addition, the Russia–Ukraine conflict triggers price bubble episodes in both markets. Finally, a counterfactual analysis suggests that the conflict increases the bubble contagion from the European natural gas market to the international energy market by about 40%. These findings imply that the Russia–Ukraine conflict is a significant driver of high upside risks to bubble occurrence and subsequent contagion to both European natural gas and international energy prices.

Originality/value

To the best of our knowledge, this study contributes new empirical evidence that the Russian–Ukrainian conflict significantly impacts the spread of price bubbles from the European natural gas market to international energy markets.

Purpose

This paper aims to analyze the technical efficiency of Indian State governments in providing elementary education (EE) and to identify the determinants of their technical inefficiency.

Design/methodology/approach

The Generalized Stochastic Frontier Approach (GSFA) is used in the context of the Inefficiency Effects Model to simultaneously estimate the frontier production function and the technical inefficiency model. Panel data of 28 Indian States from 2009–10 to 2018–19 is used.

Findings

The mean efficiency of States stands at 86%. Efficiency varied between 67 and 97%. 96% of the inter-state disparity in EE outcomes can be explained by inefficiency. Arunachal Pradesh is the least efficient State, followed by Sikkim and Tripura. Efficiency estimates were observed to change across States over the study period. Proportion of government schools, rural population, and proportion of Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribe children are the major determinants of inefficiency.

Practical implications

This study emphasizes that efficient resource management is as important as adequate resource allocation for achieving positive EE outcomes. It distinguishes resource-poor States from inefficient ones, providing insights to enhance States’ efficiency, and aiding policymakers in formulating strategies for ensuring equitable and quality EE.

Originality/value

This is the first paper to apply GSFA (for Indian States), providing a more robust estimation of efficiency. The Inefficiency Effects Model is employed that address the limitations inherent in the two-stage approach.

Purpose

The aim of this study is to investigate the contribution of tangible and intangible investments in driving labour productivity growth in the European Union over the period 2000–2017 and their role in the short and medium run. Additionally, heterogeneity across countries is accounted for by performing estimates separately for Eastern and Western European countries.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology used to conduct the analysis of the determinants of productivity is the two-way fixed-effect and the system generalised method of moments. We also include country-specific dummies in place of our variable on national innovative capacity as a means to further reduce the number of instruments.

Findings

The results reveal a long-term relationship of investment in intangible assets with labour productivity growth, more specifically of investment in R&D. This relationship holds both when considering the whole set of European countries and for Western European countries, demonstrating that R&D is key to enhancing labour productivity growth. On the contrary, the effect for Eastern countries is negative, probably due to the lack of capacity to turn this investment into an efficient and effective way to foster productivity.

Originality/value

Besides confirming the well-known role of tangible and intangible assets in productivity, the heterogeneity shown in our analysis highlights the need for improving capabilities in Eastern countries. Diversifying the decisions on the investments in European countries, depending on the specific needs and their heterogeneity, could help bridge the productivity gap and enhance specific capabilities of the country systems.

Purpose

As specific objectives, we intend to: (1) measure the connectivity between the spillovers of returns from the financial and nonfinancial sectors of the Brazilian stock market; (2) estimate the spillovers of individual returns for each sector to identify periods of higher and lower profits over a period of around eight years; (3) investigate the existence of relationships between these repercussions between pairs of sectoral indices, evaluating how much each specific sector transfers to each other and the market as a whole and (4) examine whether the connectivity of the Brazilian stock market itself and future interest rates in the USA and Brazil as well as the risk of the Brazilian economy, were explanatory variables of the dynamics of interdependence in the returns of these indices.

Design/methodology/approach

With a daily series of closing prices of sectoral indices from March 3, 2015, until June 21, 2023, we researched eight of the most relevant sectoral indices on the São Paulo Stock Exchange (B3). With this data, we estimate the Diebold–Yilmaz spillover index and frequency decompositions of Barunik–Krehlik.

Findings

The conclusions indicate that there is an overall connection of 66% in the financial and nonfinancial sectoral indices, with a peak of 83%. The consumer, energy and public services sectors stand out as significant sources of primary spillovers. When we classified secondary effects into periods, we saw that the shocks dissipated as time passed and the returns of the commodity index remained resilient across all periods.

Originality/value

Our conclusions highlight the influence of three main factors in sectors with a high degree of connectivity: periods of increased uncertainty; negative externalities in post-crisis periods and the impact of financial news on market sentiment. We think this study provides information that can be useful for policymakers, investors, investment portfolio managers, economists (financial, monetary and industrial), investment consultants and researchers who are interested in the complex interconnection among emerging market stock indices.

Purpose

This research contributes to the existing literature on the connection between trust and investment activities by exploring the effect of trust in the retirement system on dwelling investments.

Design/methodology/approach

This study utilizes data including 28 OECD countries from 2009 to 2020, and employs panel fixed effects and GMM estimators.

Findings

The analysis reveals a negative relationship between trust in the retirement system and investment in dwellings. Notably, this is found to be more evident in countries that promote neo-liberalized welfare systems.

Practical implications

The implications of our results are particularly relevant for policymakers and international construction firms.

Originality/value

The primary contribution of this paper extends the “trust–pension investment behavior” nexus. We explore whether individuals with diminished trust in the retirement system consider investing in the property market as an alternative means to safeguard their financial well-being during retirement.

Purpose

Who applies for credit, who is credit constrained and who receives credit refusal in France? To address these questions and explore the determinants of certain household credit aspects in France, we exploit a unique dataset from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) led by European Central Bank (ECB).

Design/methodology/approach

The anonymized dataset we utilize is based on the third survey wave (2017) and includes 13,555 French households. More specifically, considering a large number of household variables, associated with dimensions such as demographics, employment, income, wealth, assets and expenditures, we estimate three logit regression models, attempting to capture the factors that determine the underlying behavior of households.

Findings

We find that variables such as age, education, housing status, employment situation, wealth and evolution of expenses, play a key role and enter with high statistical significance in the estimated models. Our results are consistent with the existing body of literature, also offering further implications about the research questions we pose. Finally, we provide an elaborate discussion which meticulously clarifies the qualitative dimension of our findings.

Originality/value

To the best of our knowledge, no studies appear in the international literature, focusing on household credit in France, utilizing original data from the ECB.

Purpose

This study examines the environmental effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows and economic growth by revisiting the pollution haven and EKC hypotheses in the context of Africa.

Design/methodology/approach

The underlying relationships are unravelled with the help of quantile regressions for a panel of 46 African countries over the 1996–2022 period.

Findings

The results show that FDI inflows significantly increase CO2 emissions, supporting the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH) in Africa. There is also evidence of the N-shaped EKC hypothesis. When analysing different income groups, PHH and EKC remain consistent, except in low-income countries where only PHH is observed. However, the environmental impact of FDI inflows and economic growth decreases at higher quantiles. These findings suggest that policymakers in Africa should strengthen environmental regulations and adopt common environmental standards that encourage green technologies.

Originality/value

This study fills an empirical research gap by comprehensively examining the relationship between FDI, economic growth, and environmental degradation in African countries. Unlike previous studies focused on the inverted U-shaped EKC, our research reveals the existence of an N-shaped EKC in Africa.

Purpose

This study aims at estimating the gender wage gap in Ecuador, and its evolution over the last decade and a half, exploring its heterogeneity through different working conditions (formal/informal, full employment/underemployment, short term/long term and tenure/no tenure) and workers personal characteristics (education level; age and children).

Design/methodology/approach

Propensity score matching (PSM) and coarsened exact matching (CEM) are used to examine the gender pay inequality of wage earners in Ecuador, using the National Employment, Unemployment and Underemployment Survey (ENEMDU) data set from 2007 to 2022.

Findings

Results show a persistent gender pay gap, evidencing a significant heterogeneity through the different dimensions taken into account, in terms of working conditions and workers personal characteristics. The evolution of the pay gap during the years analyzed hardly shows any reduction of differences in earnings between men and women; on the contrary, women exposure to precarious and unregulated jobs seems to be increasing wage inequality.

Practical implications

The results make the case for active policies oriented not only at containing the negative effects of the traditional division of labor within the family but also at improving labor law enforcement, mitigating informality and workers rapid turnover.

Originality/value

This study is one of the few that use matching techniques to study the gender wage gap and the first in Ecuador; the time span taken into account is larger than previous studies, allowing a medium-long run perspective across different economic phases.

Purpose

The research investigates how green bonds and Fintech contribute to advancing sustainable energy adoption in India while addressing the intricate investment risks associated with green initiatives.

Design/methodology/approach

This study employs a stringent approach, conducting an extensive examination of data to analyze the interplay among green bonds, Fintech, and the renewable energy industry in India.

Findings

The study unveils Fintech’s capacity to optimize financing for renewable projects in India by leveraging blockchain technology and digital platforms, enhancing accessibility and investor confidence. Additionally, it underscores the role of green bonds in fostering the development of eco-friendly energy sources.

Originality/value

This research offers novel insights into the dynamic relationship among green bonds, Fintech, and India’s renewable energy sector. It emphasizes the importance of adaptable regulatory frameworks in facilitating sustainability efforts and provides valuable guidance for stakeholders navigating environmental initiatives.