Effect of Energy Prices on Economic Growth in the ECOWAS Sub-Region: Investigating the Channels Using Panel Data

The article empirically examines the effect of energy prices on economic growth within the Economic Community of West African States sub-region by acknowledging that the effect of energy prices on growth is quintessentially indirect and hence can be tracked through some channels. Exploiting the System Generalized Methods of Moments estimation technique for the period spanning 2002–2015, the results indicate that the overall effect of energy prices on economic growth is significantly negative. This effect propagates mainly through government consumption expenditure and investment, albeit its effect through real interest rate is positive. However, its negative effects on government consumption, investment, and exchange rate significantly overwhelm the positive effect from real interest rate.     

湖南省能源消费与国民经济增长关系分析

通过采用计量模型,选取相关数据,对湖南省经济增长与能源消费的关系进行实证研究发现,1980-2008年期间,每增加1％的能源消费,湖南省经济增长就增加2．66％,每增加1％的经济增长,湖南省能源消费就增加0．31％,即存在正向协整关系。说明能源消费和经济增长对彼此都有正向的促进作用。同时,经济增长和能源消费之间也存在着单向因果关系——经济增长会扩大对能源消费的需求。从趋势项的系数看,正确认识经济增长和和能源消费之间的关系,解决好经济增长和能源消费之间的矛盾,是目前乃至今后一段时期湖南经济工作的一个重点,也保持湖南经济又好又快发展的一项非常迫切的任务。     

Modeling the time-varying volatility of the paper–bill spread

The spread between the rates on commercial paper and Treasury bills has received considerable attention in the literature for its role as an indicator of real economic activity. In this paper we empirically examine what happens when the volatility of the spread changes over time. We estimate a nonlinear model that enables us to discern the asymmetric impact of negative and positive shocks to the spread. We find that a positive shock has a larger impact on the volatility of the spread than does a negative shock.     

人口城镇化质量、消费扩大升级与中国经济增长

本文在研究人口城镇化质量、消费扩大升级对经济增长作用机理的基础上,基于1978-2014年相关数据,对人口城镇化质量的消费需求、消费结构效应及消费需求传导下人口城镇化质量对经济增长的效应分别进行实证分析。研究结果发现,人口城镇化质量对消费需求扩大具有正向影响,但受制于消费环境等因素,这一作用效应并非完全显著;人口城镇化质量具备提升消费结构的基础,关键在于释放前期累积的负面效应;人口城镇化质量与经济增长基本形成一个相互作用的动态系统,存在通过消费传导实现经济增长的路径,但受制于过去粗放外延型的城镇化发展模式,这种正向传导机制发生扭曲,正向促进作用逐渐被负面影响替代。     

总供给冲击、总需求冲击与我国经济波动关系的实证研究

本文利用1994年1季度至2012年2季度产出和价格的季度数据,建立了基于长期约束的SVAR模型,用以分析总供给冲击和总需求冲击对我国经济波动的影响,考察经济增长和价格对总供给冲击和总需求冲击的动态响应。实证研究表明,总供给冲击和总需求冲击标准差均较大,而且总需求冲击波动性要大于总供给冲击的波动性,说明我国经济在样本数据期内存在波动性。脉冲响应分析发现,总供给冲击对于产出具有正向长期趋势,而总需求冲击对于产出具有正向短期影响;对于价格而言,总供给冲击对价格产生负向长期影响,而总需求冲击对价格产生正向长期影响。2011年以来我国经济增速持续放缓,主要在于供求冲击为负,供给负冲击更为显著。     

Robustness of the KOF index of economic globalisation

The KOF indices of globalisation are the most used globalisation measures in international economics literature, but it uses the nominal trade openness measure to construct the globalisation index. In this paper, we use real trade openness instead of nominal trade openness and recalculate the KOF economic globalisation index over the period 1970–2013. Using the panel data regressions for 146 countries, we revisit the economic globalisation–economic growth nexus to investigate the robustness of the KOF economic globalisation index. We consider several possibilities in model specifications, and the results show that using nominal trade openness measure in calculating the KOF globalisation index is statistically robust. In addition, the KOF economic globalisation index in logarithmic form introduces a more robust outlook in the panel data regressions—a lower bias is emerged by considering different trade openness measures to calculate the globalisation level.     

Globalisation,Growth and Convergence

This paper, devoted to the study of globalisation, analyses two distinct but closely related issues: First, it aims at evaluating disparities in the degree of globalisation observed in a sample of 101 countries over the period 1970–2005. Second, the paper tries to shed some light to the much debated issue of whether globalisation affects economic growth and, in so doing, whether convergence in globalisation brings about convergence in per capita income. The results obtained are both encouraging: on the one side, as it is shown that there has been a clear process of globalisation convergence; on the other, the paper concludes that globalisation has been one of the main drivers of economic growth, thus fostering convergence in per capita income.     

中国能源消费与经济增长关系实证研究

采用E-G两步法对1978年～2010年间中国能源消费和经济增长之间的关系进行了协整和Granger检验,结果表明,中国能源消费与经济增长之间存在长期的均衡关系,能源消费在一定程度上促进了中国的经济增长,两者间存在着从能源消费到经济增长的单向因果关系,即能源费的增长可以直接导致国内生产总值的增加,并提出了相关政策建议。     

长江经济带能源效率、能源消费与经济增长的区域差异--基于沿江11省市的数据分析

长江经济带集中了中国大部分的高技术与高能耗产业,过度依赖能源已成为影响该地区经济可持续发展的重要因素。采用面板数据从时间序列和截面两个维度对长江经济带11省市的能源消费和经济增长的区域差异进行分析,可以克服样本量小的缺点,更好地观察区域差异的动态变化。以人均能源消费量和人均国内生产总值为横纵坐标,构建二维组合矩阵,将长江经济带划分为4个不同的区域：江苏、江西、湖南、湖北、重庆、四川属于经济高增长能源消费高增长区;浙江、安徽、贵州属于经济高增长能源消费低增长区;云南属于经济低增长能源消费高增长区,上海属于经济低增长能源消费低增长区。     

广东省能源消费与经济增长关系实证研究

运用格兰杰因果关系检验与脉冲响应以及方差分解方法,分别对广东省能源消费与经济增长之间的因果与动态以及定量关系进行研究.研究发现:广东省能源消费与经济增长之间存在从能源消费到经济增长的单向因果关系,能源消费的较小波动将对经济增长产生持续较大的影响,经济增长对能源消费具有较强的依赖性.     

Modelling the asymmetric responses of price level to oil price changes in Qatar

This paper inspects the asymmetric effect of oil price on prices level in Qatar. To achieve that, we proceed by employing a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach on data during the period 1990Q1–2014Q4. The estimation results show evidences of an incomplete and asymmetric influence of oil price on price level in the long term. Moreover, we find that price responses to negative changes in oil price is greater than its response to positive changes. Given Qatar’s economic features, a decrease in oil price could cause lower imports and production prices and consequently a substantial influence on domestic prices level. However, the lower effect of positive oil price changes on consumer prices can be explained by the subsidies system, the consumption patterns, and the exchange rate regime.     

陕西省能源消费碳排放分析

通过分析1995—2009年陕西省三大产业能源碳排放总量及六大部门碳排放变化情况,以及该段期间内产业结构、经济规模与能源结构三大因素对能源消费碳排放的影响,从中发现,经济规模效应、产业结构效应是正向决定性因素,能源结构效应是负向决定性因素。陕西省应调整能源结构,在进一步提高天然气和电力等低碳能源在能源结构中的使用比例的同时,必须发展其他形式的能源;调整产业结构,促进低碳绿色产业发展,一方面,政府应当利用经济手段和行政手段,限制高碳产业的发展,另一方面,运用适当的财政政策引导、鼓励和扶持低碳产业的发展和绿色产品的开发,从而促进产业竞争力的提高,减轻传统产业的锁定效应。     

湖北省能源消费与经济增长的关系研究

能源是经济和社会发展的重要物质基础,和经济发展息息相关。文章对湖北省能源消费的现状和特点进行分析,然后利用湖北省1980-2010年的年度数据对湖北省能源消费和经济增长之间的关系进行检验。研究结果显示,湖北省能源消费与经济增长之间存在长期稳定的关系,但不存在因果关系。通过对湖北省能源消费弹性系数的测算,发现湖北省能源弹性系数较高,能源利用率有待提高。     

The Asymmetric Effects of Macroeconomic Performance on Happiness: Evidence for the EU

An analysis of data from the Eurobarometer finds evidence of the asymmetric effects of macroeconomic performance on happiness. The evidence reveals that the negative effect of an economic recession on happiness can be at least twice the positive effect of economic growth. In short, a single year of recession can undo the happiness gains from years of economic growth. Moreover, while this evidence focuses on a short-run asymmetry, it nonetheless supports the Easterlin paradox of a nil relationship between macroeconomic performance and happiness. The evidence indicates that stable rather than rapid economic growth is a more sensible target for policymakers, because macroeconomic stability can lead to conditions that allow the pursuit of happiness and thus secure greater well-being.     

贸易开放、人力资本与中国能源消耗

文章从贸易开放对中国能源消耗产生的影响这一基本问题出发,将人力资本纳入分析视角,研究了贸易开放、人力资本对中国能源消耗的直接效应和交互效应。利用中国2001-2012年30个省份的统计数据,运用固定效应回归模型和面板门槛回归模型进行了实证研究,结果表明：贸易开放对能源消耗的直接效应呈倒“U”型曲线关系,即在贸易开放水平较低时,提高贸易开放水平将增加能源消耗量并提高能源消耗强度;当贸易开放水平较高时,提高贸易开放水平反而能促使能源消耗量和能源消耗强度降低。人力资本对能源消耗的直接效应显著为负,提高人力资本要素积累将促进地区经济增长从物质资本驱动型向人力资本驱动型转变。贸易开放与人力资本对能源消耗的交互效应在人力资本处于较高的门槛区间时显著为负,说明贸易开放在人力资本较高的地区将促进该地区专业化生产节能降耗的人力资本密集型产品,从而降低地区能源消耗量并提高能源利用效率。     

广东省能源消费、经济增长与FDI互动关系的研究——基于VAR模型

本文运用格兰杰因果关系检验与脉冲响应方法,分别对广东省能源消费、经济增长与外商直接投资(FDI)之间的因果与动态关系进行了深入研究。研究发现:广东省经济高速增长推动了能源的高消耗,而FDI的大量流入又直接推动着经济高速增长,FDI通过经济增长间接促进了能源高消耗。对于FDI波动,经济增长与能源消费将有较强同向波动,FDI对能源消费具有节约效应,FDI在广东省经济发展中占据重要地位。     

Globalisation,trade, and growth: A macroeconomic perspective

On the basis of economic theory, what effects can globalisation be expected to have on trade and growth? Does the empirical evidence support this? What developments will the next phase of globalisation bring?     

中国能源消费因果关系分析

基于协整、误差修正模型与方差分解,分析我国1953年以来的能源消费与经济增长、能源价格、产业结构之间的Granger因果关系。实证结果表明:经济增长不是引起能源消费变化的原因,这可能是由于我国存在着严重的能源浪费造成的;而能源消费是引起经济增长的原因,这验证了我国过去50年高投资、高消耗的粗放式经济增长模式,近几年我国能源消费弹性系数的变化再次反映了这一问题。能源消费与能源价格不存在任何方向的因果关系,方差分解结果再次肯定了能源价格的相对外生性,这预示着政府若要增强能源价格对于能源消费的影响作用,必须放开对能源价格的管制,让市场主导能源价格的形成。产业结构是引起能源消费变化的重要原因,因此从产业结构方面入手调控能源消费将是非常有效的。     

The Evidence on Globalisation

Globalisation is blamed for many socioeconomic shortcomings. I discuss the consequences of globalisation by surveying the empirical globalisation literature. My focus is on the KOF indices of globalisation that have been used in more than 100 studies. Early studies using the KOF index reported correlations between globalisation and several outcome variables. Studies published more recently identify causal effects. The evidence shows that globalisation has spurred economic growth, promoted gender equality and improved human rights. Moreover, globalisation did not erode welfare state activities, did not have any significant effect on labour market interaction and hardly influenced market deregulation. It increased, however, within‐country income inequality. The consequences of globalisation thus turn out to be overall much more favourable than often conjectured in the public discourse.     

Globalisation and Obesity

The WHO has recently announced the global obesity epidemic. An economic model is developed in which globalisation factors generate health externalities and contribute to global obesity growth. The unbalanced panel data set contains the information for 79 countries over the period 1986–2008. Fixed‐effects panel data estimation and quantile regression analysis were used to analyse the data. The fixed‐effects panel model results indicate that the impact of trade openness and the globalisation social index (GSI) on global obesity rates is positive and significant, which is consistent with prior expectations, while surprisingly the foreign direct investments (FDI) has no impact on global obesity. While these results are interesting, they are hiding the effect of globalisation processes across the conditional distribution of the obesity variable. The use of quantile regression uncovered that the impact of the FDI and the GSI on low and average quantiles (low and average obesity rates in our sample) is positive and significant, while high quantiles are not affected. Since low and average quantiles (low and average obesity rates) are representative of the less‐ and medium‐developed countries, this result implies that social globalisation and FDI adversely impact obesity in less‐to‐medium developed countries. Trade openness generally has no impact on changes in obesity rates across quantiles.