Annals of Financial Economics

The infectious disease equity market volatility (ID-EMV) index, projected by Baker et al. (Baker, SR, N Bloom, SJ Davis, KJ Kost, MC Sammon and T Viratyosin (2020). The unprecedented stock market impact of COVID-19. Review of Asset Pricing Studies, 10(4), 742–758), relates infectious disease to equity market variability during the COVID-19 disease. The ID-EVM index examines the asymmetric influence on the stock market returns of seven developing countries: Mexico, Turkey, Brazil, China, Mexico, India and Indonesia. The investigation applies various statistical estimations, for instance, unit root, quantile cointegration and quantile-on-quantile regression (QQR) approaches. The relation between the stock returns of seven emerging economies and infectious disease EMV index is revealed by the quantile cointegration approach. Additionally, the QQR procedure shows that amid bullish market situation, stock returns are positively influenced by the infectious disease index. While, amid the bearish market situations, stock returns are negatively influenced by infectious disease index, the findings of this research have important policy implications. A piece of valuable information on the nexus between the variability in the equity market and the infectious disease index is provided by this investigation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Policymakers and investors can benefit from this newly introduced ID-EMV index to understand the influence on emerging market countries of this infectious disease.

Ensuring energy justice is crucial for achieving social stability and realizing low-carbon development. Accordingly, we estimate the effect of green finance (GF) on energy justice in China and further explore its influencing mechanisms using the system-generalized method of moments (SYS-GMM). For this purpose, we first assess the levels of energy justice across 30 Chinese provinces. The main results show the following: (1) China’s energy justice index generally shows an upward trend during the observation period. (2) GF can directly promote China’s energy justice, mainly by increasing procedural justice, recognition justice, and restorative justice. (3) GF also indirectly increases energy justice by promoting environmental regulation and green total factor productivity (GTFP). (4) The effect of GF on energy justice is heterogeneous and asymmetric. Specifically, it is more pronounced in southern China, regions with low GF indexes, and regions with high energy justice indexes. This study’s findings enrich the existing literature and provide policy implications for China’s realization of energy justice.

This study examines the existence of interrelationships among GCC and Jordanian stock markets. The study applied weekly data for stock price indices for the Amman Exchange (ASE) and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, namely, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. In this analysis, weekly market returns were employed to avoid the overlapping of recognized holidays and trading hours in the GCC and the ASE. During the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, the sample period spanned from January 7, 2009 to December 30, 2020 for overall (626) weekly observations The main contribution of this study is to shed light on the dynamics of cross-market associations, particularly in the context of emerging economies can be concluded as follows: First, this study is a forefront study that tested the linkages between GCC and Jordanian Markets. Second, the period of this study covered various crises such as the global financial crisis, and COVID-19. Third, the empirical study of multivariate integration, which considers both pairwise interactions and the overall integration of different stock markets by utilizing cutting-edge econometric methods like VECM and DCC-GARCH. As a result, an examination of ASE’s weekly stock price index was conducted. The findings show that there is causality and correlation among stock market indices. Three unidirectional causality relationships running from KUW, OMAI, and UAEI to ASEI. Moreover, the results revealed two bidirectional causality relationships, one between ASEI and BAHI and the other between ASEI and UAEI. The conditional correlations appear to be generally negative, implying that higher ASE volatility causes worse GCC stock returns. Saudi Arabia has the highest conditional connections, followed by Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, while Kuwait and Oman’s stock markets are the least connected with the ASE among their peers. Since financial indices are essential for investors, portfolio managers, risk management and fiscal and monetary policy, the findings of this study may be interest of many parties of them, especially for investors, policymakers and governments.

Few studies specifically testified to how increased bank competition affects export product quality. This paper fills this gap in this area by examining whether and how increased bank competition affects export product quality. The core results of our findings are as follows. First, the statistical analysis results show that a series of bank reforms have enhanced competition in the banking industry in China. Second, the theoretical model shows that bank reform positively influences export product quality. Subsequently, employing a panel sample of 77,817 firms that exported 4,787 products (HS-6) to 230 destinations from 2000 to 2006, we adopt a difference-in-differences approach to test the association between a rise in bank competition and the quality of exported products. The baseline results which are robust in different model settings support that an increase in bank competition increases export product quality. The further empirical test shows that increased bank competition upgrades export product quality through the following channels: bank competition increase leads to enterprises’ financial stability enhancement which, in turn, leads to R&D investment upgrading which then leads to export product quality enhancement. Finally, the heterogeneity checks documented that the positive effect of bank competition upgrading on export product quality is pronounced for non-SOEs, and for firms in both the growth and mature stages. Moreover, an increase in bank competition makes financial resources more accessible in areas with weak financial infrastructure. Our findings shed light on the policy implications for emerging economies. Our study expands the theoretical framework of bank competition research on export product quality and inspires the development of strategies for exporting enterprises.

The current research aims to examine the dynamics among financial development, renewable energy consumption, information and communication technology (ICT) and inclusive growth by focusing on the interaction of finance and ICT in South Asia from 1995 to 2019. The objectives of the study are obtained by using new and broad measures for inclusive growth and financial development. The panel co-integration tests confirm the long-run association between the selected variables. The existence of cross-sectional dependence and mixed order of integration of analyzed variables require the application of panel linear and nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL). The findings of both techniques disclose that financial development and ICT individually are significant and vital contributors to inclusive growth in the long run. While their collaboration does not supplement inclusive growth during the same period which is an interesting and unique finding. The short-run outcomes also endorse this outcome. However, the individual impact of financial development remains insignificant while ICT enhances inclusive growth significantly in the short run. The panel nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) results have more explanatory powers than panel ARDL and endorse the assumptions of significant complementarity and nonlinearity between financial development-ICT and inclusive growth. Therefore, it is suggested to increase the access and efficiency of financial intermediaries to accelerate the participation of the masses in the economic growth process and its benefits. In addition, more investment in ICT infrastructure and education is needed so that the ICT sector can complement the financial sector efficiently to boost inclusive growth in South Asia.

This research examines whether the remittance (REM) inflows cause Dutch disease and how it affects financial development (FD). The sample consists of the top global REM recipients, namely China, Egypt, India, Mexico and the Philippines, based on the latest World Bank data from 1990 to 2019. This study employs three econometric models to evaluate the REM inflows’ impact on FD. Using the cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) estimation technique, we reveal that the REM inflows have impeded FD and have triggered Dutch disease issues in the financial sectors. Furthermore, the estimation found a positive effect of economic growth, globalization, human capital and financial risks on FD across all models, both in the short and long runs. In addition, the interplay among the REM, human capital, and financial risks also facilitates FD. The study suggests that robust resource flows and price adjustment processes tackle the hazard of deteriorating FD and emphasize the Dutch disease’s effects on the top REM recipients.