Q51 - Valuation of Environmental EffectsReturn

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.

This research investigates the environmental effects of mining activities in countries in the Global South, specifically focusing on Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and Pakistan, from 1990 to 2020. Utilizing advanced econometric techniques, especially panel data methods, the study identifies considerable variations in how key factors - such as mineral rents, forest areas, GDP per capita and freshwater resources - affect the ecological footprint. The results support the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis and show that while mineral rents tend to decrease the ecological footprint, increased renewable freshwater resources are associated with a higher footprint (but the effect reverses in higher quantiles). No conclusive evidence can be found regarding the nexus between forest areas and the ecological footprint. By comparing the results with existing environmental standards and management practices, a significant gap between policy and practice is found, which contributes directly to the current environmental challenges and points out the need for country-specific strategies to increase environmental sustainability in the mining sector.

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.

As the corporate world has recently been increasingly held accountable for its non-green behaviour, corporate environmental disclosures (CED) are crucial in informing the relevant stakeholders. Among the factors influencing CED, firm auditors play a pivotal role. Our research investigates the impact of Big Four audit firms on corporate environmental disclosure in China. With unique institutional factors and the most significant carbon emissions globally, China provides an exciting and compelling ground for studying this relationship. For this purpose, we use annual firm-level data of A-listed shares on the Shenzhen and Shanghai stock exchanges and employ the Poisson and negative binomial regression models for empirical analyses. Contrary to the common belief that Big Four audit firms lead to improved disclosure quality, we find that they negatively affect environmental disclosure in China. We also investigate the moderating role of corporate governance and ownership structure in this relationship. A high ratio of state ownership, male directors on the board and institutional investor holding worsen the disclosure quality. However, a high ratio of independent directors mitigates this issue. These findings open new avenues for further research and can guide future policy decisions regarding environmental disclosure in Chinese firms. The Big Four audit firms should be more stringent in their operations and supervise public firms regarding environmental disclosures.

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.

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.

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.

Our study investigates the benefits that the Czech inhabitants could gain from the reduction of road traffic noise. We applied contingent valuation study in order to estimate willingness-to-pay (WTP) for the reduction of traffic noise by 10 dB (from 70 dB up 60 dB). Using data from 2010 Czech representative survey (n=2,104), we estimated mean WTP by nonparametric method which was based on the Kaplan-Meier estimate. Further, we explained the variability of WTP using Double-Hurdle model. In the first step, the Probit model explained the choice of individuals that are willing to participate on the program decreasing the road noise. In the second step, the log-normal regression model explained the variability of WTP on the socio-economic characteristics of individuals and characteristics of noise in the area where people live.

Brownfields are old, unused sites and buildings located in urban areas and open countryside. This article deals with problems of brownfields that developed as a result of restructuring national industry, a decreased significance of primary and secondary industry, and the increase of tertiary industry. The main part of the article provides a complex evaluation of the costs and benefits connected with brownfields regeneration in comparison with building on greenfields. The presented model evaluates both alternatives from the municipality, investor and public interest points of view. In a conclusion, there is given a recommended procedure for brownfields regeneration. The first step is to create a database of brownfields which will be later followed by the evaluation of identified brownfields according to attractiveness for investors, usability of individual brownfields from the point of view of land use planning and also the search of financial resources for regeneration and evaluation of economic efficiency of brownfields revitalization.