O44 - Environment and GrowthReturn

In the current literature strand, most of the literature is devoted to the role played by mineral and governance policies in environmental quality. However, their criticality in income inequality is mainly overlooked by scholarly works. This research investigated the nexus of mineral and governance policies with income inequality while exploring the importance of per capita income, health expenditure, and poverty. Covering the extended period from 1984Q1 to 20223Q4 in the case of China, this research confirms the presence of long-run equilibrium association between variables. Due to the non-normal data distribution, this research uses quantile regression and a series of robust non-parametric and parametric approaches. The research concludes that mineral resources, health expenditure, governance efficiency, regulatory quality, and poverty headcounts significantly reduce income inequality. Wealth from mineral and health expenditures substantially improves the living standards of the general public. The governance policies are also beneficial in equal wealth distribution of the country. On the contrary, per capita income and government stability are the region's leading factors of income inequality. Based on the predicted results, this research recommends improved minerals management, strengthening of governance institutions and policies, and enhancement in health expenditure to tackle the issue of income inequality.

In the context of growing global energy demand and advancing climate change, digital technologies offer opportunities for a low-carbon energy transition. Through such technologies, including big data, artificial intelligence and the internet of things, digitalization enables intelligent optimization, flexible management and efficient operation of energy systems, access to renewable energy, and reducing both energy consumption and carbon emissions. Grounded in the data of listed companies from 2011 to 2020, this study discusses the influence of enterprise digitalization on the low-carbon energy transition. The results show that enterprises’ digital development will boost their low-carbon energy transformation effectively. Digitalization promotes enterprises to achieve this transformation by aiding them in improving green technology innovation, optimizing supply chains and improving internal control level. In addition, a heterogeneity analysis of environmental regulation shows that in regions with strong environmental regulation, the promotion effect of enterprise digitalization on low-carbon energy transformation is more significant. The regional heterogeneity in the results suggests that eastern and central enterprises have a stronger promotion effect on enterprise energy low-carbon transformation in digital transformation. Therefore, such transformations should be regarded as important, and they should be incorporated into environmental protection policy. This would include promoting low-carbon technology innovation, combining environmental protection regulation with carbon emission reduction and implementing suggestions for reducing carbon emissions and sustainable development goals.

In a contest to attain equitable economic performance, emerging economies of the Global South are rapidly strengthening their institutional framework and improving investment in the green energy sector and digitization. Also, these economies are extracting mineral resources to encourage development but still lagging in the context of an equitable growth race, which creates uncertainty among policymakers. Therefore, it is crucial to analyse the influence of mineral resources, digital economy and governance on the economic development of the emerging economies of the Global South from 1996 to 2022. In addition, the crucial role of green energy and foreign direct investment in economic growth are analysed. We use a second-generation stationarity test and a series of cointegration tests to confirm the stationarity of the variables and the stability of long-run association between them. Due to the issue of non-normality, the novel method of moments quantile regression offers robust nuances while accounting for the endogeneity issue. The outcomes indicate that mineral resources are adversely associated with sustainable economic development in the region. However, the digital economy, green energy and foreign direct investment drive sustainable growth in emerging economies in the Global South. On the other hand, institutional factors demonstrate mixed influences on sustainable economic development, where control of corruption and governance efficiency significantly lead to sustainable economic growth, while regulatory quality harms development. The study recommends strengthening the institutions, further investment in digitization initiatives, research and development and sustainable use of mineral resources to attain sustainable growth.

Currently, nations worldwide are actively promoting various environmental movements to address the ecological crisis. Among these, the most prominent is the Green New Deal (GND). However, during the development of the GND, some scholars have identified that its advancement may lead to more severe environmental problems. Therefore, this study constructs indicators for green economic development and the GND. Utilizing an Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression model and a Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) and based on panel data from 30 Chinese provinces spanning 2008 to 2021, it specifically analyzes the impact of the GND on green economic development. The study further examines the spatial effects and externality impacts of the GND. Additionally, green finance is selected as a mediating variable to further explore the relationship between the GND, green finance and green economic development, analyzing the mediating role that green finance plays between them.

In the empirical determination of the factors influencing the clean energy transition, the BRICS economies have initiated various policy reforms, such as increased R&D budgets, improvements in technology and political stability. This study analyses the critical role of political risk and economic growth, natural resources, research and development and technological innovation in the clean energy transition in the period 1990-2022. Using panel econometric approaches, this study confirms the heterogeneity of slopes and cross-sectional dependence. Using linear regression with the heteroscedastic panel-corrected standard error approach, the results show that economic expansion, political risk and the quadratic R&D term significantly enhance the clean energy transition. However, natural resources, conventional technological innovation and research and development expenditures are the leading barriers to a clean energy transition in the region. The robustness of these results is validated by a series of panel regressions. Following the empirical outcomes, this study recommends rapid enhancement of the research and development budget, strengthening of governance and institutions and investment in technological innovation to attain a sustainable transition towards clean energy sources.

The interaction between socioeconomic disparities and environmental degradation, which is highly pertinent to the issue of climate change, has garnered significant scholarly attention globally. Despite the critical importance of climate change in political economy, research into labour markets and environmental policies remains limited in the current literature. Therefore, the present study discusses the implementation of China's low-carbon city pilot policy (LCCPP) as an exogenous policy shock. Utilizing A-share data from listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges spanning the period 2007-2020, we employ a multiperiod difference-in-differences model to scrutinize the influence and mechanisms of LCCPP on employment. Our study reveals a significant increase in employment levels within pilot cities due to LCCPP. The findings remain stable even after the results are subjected to a battery of robustness tests. Mechanistic analysis suggests that the policy substantially increases employment through the scale effect and factor substitution effect. Heterogeneous results demonstrate the policy's substantial promotion of employment levels in pilot cities across state-owned enterprises, the first and second industrial sectors and low-carbon industry enterprises. These research findings support steering China's economic development towards a low-carbon, environmentally sustainable growth transformation. Furthermore, policymakers should encourage the LCCPP to stimulate employment while addressing socioeconomic disparities and environmental concerns simultaneously in political economy.

This study investigates the relationship between economic complexity, globalization, energy consumption patterns and CO₂ emissions in 12 energy-importing emerging economies from 1996 to 2020. Employing panel data analysis, the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model is utilized. The findings reveal a U-shaped relationship between economic complexity and air pollution, supporting the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) theory. Renewable energy demonstrates a significant ability to reduce CO₂ emissions over the long term, while fossil fuel use exacerbates environmental degradation. Economic globalization is associated with increased CO₂ emissions, contradicting expectations. The short-term results align with the long-term findings, highlighting significant country-specific variations. The policy implications highlight the necessity of promoting renewable energy adoption and reducing reliance on fossil fuels. This research contributes to EKC literature by focusing on energy-importing economies, emphasizing the importance of multidimensional analyses in environmental policy formulation. The study underscores the critical role of renewable energy investment and carbon pricing strategies in mitigating environmental degradation while encouraging sustainable development pathways.

This study examines the impact of monetary developments on environmental quality and economic growth. We utilize ARDL/PMG models to study twelve climatically vulnerable countries from 1996 to 2018. We find that a 1% increase in real GDP and domestic credit harms the environment by 0.827% and 0.220%, respectively. However, savings improve environmental excellence by 0.373%. A 1% environmental degradation decreases human health by 0.317%; consequently, economic growth declines by 1.102%. Good governance emerges as a key solution, with a 1% improvement in public institutions mitigating the adverse impact of real GDP on the environment by 0.777%. Redirecting 1% of loans to eco-friendly projects improves the environment by 1.311%. Dumitrescu-Hurlin and PVAR Granger tests support these findings.

The paper shows an econometric approach to environmental taxes, economic growth and go- vernment expenditures in Visegrad Group (VG) countries from 1995 to 2018. The aim of this research is to explore how environmental taxes affect economic growth in Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia in the observed period. The subject of the research is to identify the relationship between total environmental tax revenues, energy tax revenues, transport tax revenues and economic growth. Also, empirical research includes the relation between environmental taxation and government expenditures to identify the character of their effects and influence on economic growth through government expenditures. The findings of VAR model I manifest that shocks in total environmental tax revenues and energy tax revenues positively and significantly affect the economic growth, whereas transport tax revenues have a negative and significant effect on economic growth. The results of VAR model II show that total environmental tax revenues are significantly positively related to government expenditures, which is not the case with energy tax revenues and transport tax revenues. Furthermore, empirical research finds a bidirectional causality between environmental taxes and economic growth, as well as unidirectional causality between environmental taxes and government expenditures in VG economies.

The article examines the relationships between selected gender and economic indicators of chosen countries (OECD countries, EU countries, associate members of OECD and high-income countries) and evaluates situation of the Czech Republic in international comparison. Gender indicator values for the Czech Republic were compared both within the time period (years 2006-2014) and with summary statistics for the EU countries. Further, based on four subindexes of the global gender gap index (GGI), similarity of the Czech Republic and other countries in time comparison were expressed. Multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis were applied for graphical expression of relationships of the high-income and EU countries. Positive correlation of indicators reflecting women participation in political and economic life was identifi ed in the OECD countries. Moreover, gender equality and the competitiveness, sustainability of economies and GDP per capita positively correlate in the group of these countries. Gender equality in the Czech Republic is very weak in an international comparison and demonstrates a deteriorating trend.