Search Results (5)

Internet development and urbanization are widely perceived to have a significant impact on the economy and sustainability in China. However, existing studies fail to consider their interaction patterns and directions with economic growth in China’s Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB). This study applies a bootstrap panel Granger causality test to examine the causal relationships between Internet development, urbanization, and regional economic growth for the YREB‘s 11 provinces. The main findings are as follows: (1) Internet development, urbanization and regional economic growth exhibit cross-sectional dependence and province-specific heterogeneity in the YREB. (2) Granger causality from Internet development to economic growth exists in most provinces, while Granger causality from economic growth to Internet development and two-way Granger causality are only observed in economically developed provinces, such as Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Chongqing. (3) Granger causality from urbanization to economic growth exists in nine provinces, except for Hubei and Guizhou. However, the reverse Granger causality is only confirmed in Jiangsu, Anhui, and Hubei. This suggests that urbanization significantly improves economic growth efficiency, but the effect of economic growth on urbanization is restricted by regional bias policies. Therefore, the local government should implement tailored economic policies and establish an interactive mechanism to help China leverage its potential for economic growth and sustainability. Full article

The globalized world has experienced significant environmental degradation together with raising global production and population. In this context, the employment of renewable energy use has become crucial for a sustainable environment and development. In the research, the mutual causality among renewable energy, trade and financial globalization, real GDP per capita, and CO₂ emissions in EU transition economies experiencing the integration with global economy was explored through bootstrap panel Granger causality test for the period of 1995–2015. The causality analysis revealed a unilateral causality from trade globalization to renewable energy in Estonia, Latvia, and Slovenia, and from renewable energy to trade globalization in Croatia and Lithuania. However, no significant causality between financial globalization and renewable energy was revealed. On the other side, a unilateral causality from CO₂ emissions to renewable energy in Lithuania and Slovenia, and from renewable energy to CO₂ emissions in Czechia, Hungary, and Latvia and a reciprocal causality between renewable energy to CO₂ emissions in Romania and Slovakia and a unilateral causality from real GDP per capita to renewable energy in Czechia, Romania, and Slovenia was discovered in the causality analysis. Full article

This study examines the relationship between primary energy consumption (PEC) and real gross domestic product (real GDP) in the top four major energy consumers in Asia, namely, China, India, Japan, and South Korea. The study period is from 1982–2018, covering 37 years of data after the second oil crisis (1979–1981). Bootstrap panel Granger causality method is applied to examine the causal relationship between PEC and real GDP. This method is capable of controlling cross-sectional dimension and cross-country heterogeneity. In addition, few studies investigate the relevance of real GDP to energy consumption, although real GDP adjusted by inflation provides an accurate picture of a country’s economic situation. Our results contribute to existing literature in the field of PEC and real GDP. Through rigorous empirical research, we derive the main conclusion as follows. The real GDP and PEC of the top four energy consumers in Asia seem to be affected by the burst of the speculative Internet bubble from 2000–2001. Therefore, this study divides the research period into three periods: 1982–2018, 1982–2001, and 2002–2018. During the 1982–2018 period, an independent causal relationship is observed between real GDP and PEC for all four countries, thus supporting the neutrality hypothesis. During the 1982–2001 period, a unidirectional causal relationship running from PEC to real GDP is observed, thus supporting the energy growth hypothesis. Moreover, the coefficient is significantly negative in India; that is, PEC constrains economic development. Thus, the Indian government should reform its energy efficiency and consumption technologies to reduce energy waste. During the 2002–2018 period, an independent causal relationship is observed between real GDP and energy consumption for all four countries, thus supporting the neutrality hypothesis. This study then changes real GDP into nominal GDP and finds a unidirectional causal relationship running from PEC to nominal GDP in South Korea, thus supporting the growth hypothesis. A unidirectional causal relationship is also observed running from nominal GDP to PEC in India, thus supporting the energy conservation hypothesis. As mentioned above, we find that the relationship between PEC and real GDP adjusted by the GDP deflator is weaker than that between PEC and nominal GDP. Nominal GDP strengthens its relationship with PEC through the effect of prices for all the goods and services produced in an economy. Full article

The present paper investigates the impact of pollution information transparency index (PITI) on eco-efficiency using a novel panel dataset covering 109 key environmental protection prefecture-level cities in China over the period 2008–2015. We apply an extended data envelopment analysis (DEA) model, simultaneously incorporating metafrontier, undesirable outputs and super efficiency into slack-based measure (Meta-US-SBM) to estimate eco-efficiency. Then, the bootstrap Granger causality approach is utilized to test the unidirectional Granger causal relationship running from PITI to eco-efficiency. Results of DEA model show that there exist significant spatiotemporal disparities of eco-efficiency, on average, the eco-efficiency in eastern region is relative higher than those of central/western region. Estimates of ordinary least square (OLS) method, quantile regression, and spatial Durbin model document that the evidence of an inverted-U-shaped relation between PITI and eco-efficiency is supported, and the turning points vary from 0.3370 to 0.4540 with different model specifications. Finally, supplementary analysis of panel threshold model also supports the robust findings. Policy implications are presented based on the empirical results. Full article

By using the Emirmahmutoglu–Kose bootstrap Granger non-causality method, this study explores the directions of causality among tourist arrivals, tourism receipts, energy consumption and economic growth for the top 10 most-visited countries (France, the USA, Spain, China, Italy, Turkey, Germany, the United Kingdom, Russia, and Mexico) in the world. This study finds a variety of causal directions between the pair of analyzed variables for each country and the panel. Since cross-sectional dependence exists across the top countries for the analyzed variables, the bootstrap Granger causality test that accounts for the mentioned issue in the estimation process presumably produces reliable and accurate outputs. Further results and policy implications are discussed in this empirical study. Full article