Development patterns of oil exporting countries

This study analyzes empirically the impact of rising income levels on the economic structure of several oil producing and exporting countries during the 1970s and early 1980s. The results indicate that the agricultural sector showed declining rates of growth, and negative growth elasticities were indicated by nine of the ten countries included in this study. On the other hand, the industrial sector in all countries showed positive growth to varying degrees. However, this growth may be more policy-induced than real growth. Disparity and inequality ratios were highest in Middle East and North African countries.     

Impact of financial development on SAARC’S human development

The objective of the study is to investigate the link between economic growth and financial development (i.e., broad money supply, credit to private sector (CPS) and bank deposit liabilities) in human development for a panel of selected South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries; namely, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka during 1988–2008; over the period of 1988–2008. The panel cointegration technique is employed for analysis of short and long-run relationship between the variables. The results of panel cointegration found that there is a long-run relationship between financial development indicators and economic growth in human development in SAARC region. The estimated results indicate that in the short run, bank deposit liabilities exerts the maximum impact (i.e., 0.425 %) on human development in SAARC region, subsequently, broad money supply (i.e., 0.301 %) and CPS (i.e., 0.128 %) respectively, while there is a negative relationship between real GDP growth and human capital (i.e., \(-\) 0.189 %). In the long-run, DOLS estimator constitutes broad money supply which increases by 0.912 %, followed by credit to private sector (i.e., 0.121 %) on human development. While, in case of FMOLS estimator, these results are disappear, as broad money supply does not have any significant impact on human development in SAARC region. The coefficient of real GDP per capita in both estimators, have a negative impact on human development, however, the intensity of both estimators are different in nature, as real GDP per capita decrease human development in FMOLS (i.e., \(-\) 0.828 %) and in DOLS estimators (i.e., 0.458 %). The results indicate that due to a low quality of human capital in SAARC region; the direct effect of economic growth becomes negative; however, financial development indicators act as an important driver for increase in human capital in SAARC region. The implications of present research relate to heightening the need for labor market reforms and making the educational system more flexible.     

Does oil price variability affect ASEAN exchange rates? Evidence from panel cointegration test

Using panel data, this article investigates the long-run relationship between real oil prices and real exchange rates for selected ASEAN countries by utilizing quarterly data from 1973:Q1 to 2013:Q4. The modelling implementation starts with the determination of the stationarity condition of the variables which are found to be integrated of order one. Using Maddala and Wu’s (1999) panel cointegration test, the article finds evidence of cointegration among the variables. The fully modified OLS (FMOLS) and dynamic OLS (DOLS) are then used to estimate the long-run relationship between the variables, followed by applying Toda–Yamamoto causality test. The findings exhibit bidirectional causality between real oil prices and real exchange rates in the long run, where it is highly significant.     

Financial inclusion of Muslim minority in Vellore,Tamil Nadu

The study aims to identify the potential determinants of financial inclusion and its impact on the Indian Muslim minority in Tamil Nadu. statistical package for social science and analysis of moment structures software packages were used in the study. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling techniques were applied to examine the collected data (n = 300) from the Vellore district from April 2022 to March 2023. The study reveals that financial awareness, access and quality positively and significantly impact financial inclusion. However, the financial usage dimension is statistically insignificant. Additionally, the results from the moderation effect reveal that financial access and quality, along with age and annual income, significantly influence financial inclusion. In conclusion, the study contributes new dimensions to the existing literature by exploring the financial inclusion of Muslims and suggests implications and future scope for further research.     

Dynamic linkages between tourism transportation expenditures,carbon dioxide emission,energy consumption and growth factors: evidence from the transition economies

Tourism transport profoundly affects economic growth, energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. This study is an attempt to examine the impact of international tourism transportation expenditures, energy demand, foreign direct investment inflows, trade openness and urban population on carbon dioxide emission and per capita income for the panel of 11 transition Economies, over the period of 1995–2013. The results show that per capita income escalates the carbon dioxide emission (CO₂), which deteriorates the natural environment. International tourism receipts and international tourism expenditures for travel items are associated with the intensifying CO₂ emission and per capita income in the region. The study confirmed the energy-led emissions, FDI-led emissions, FDI-led growth, income-led emissions, income-led energy demand, trade-led growth and trade-led energy demand. The causality results further substantiate the the tourism-led growth and FDI hypothesis in the region. Finally, the variance decomposition analysis confirmed the following results, that is, (i) per capita income is the contributor that least influences CO₂ emissions, (ii) urban population influences per capita income and (iii) international tourism transportation expenditures will influence CO₂ emissions and per capita income for the next 10-year period.     

Analysing customers' reviews and ratings for online food deliveries: A text mining approach

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between online reviews and ratings through text mining and empirical techniques. An Indian food delivery portal ( Zomato.com ) was used, where 50 restaurants on Presence Across Nation (PAN) basis were selected through stratified random sampling. A total of 2530 reviews were collected, scrutinized, and analysed. Using the NVivo software for qualitative analysis, seven themes were identified from collected reviews, out of which, the ‘delivery’ theme was explored further for identifying sub-themes. Linear regression modelling was used to identify the variables affecting delivery ratings and sentiment analysis was also performed on the identified sub-themes. Regression results revealed that hygiene and pricing (delivery subthemes) demonstrated lower delivery ratings. These variables can be established as indicators for restaurants and related online food delivery services to build their business model around them. Similarly, negative sentiments were observed in pricing and hygiene sub-themes. Restaurants and online food services can enhance hygiene levels of their food delivery process in order to receive higher delivery ratings. Similarly, pricing of food items can be modified such that customers are not deterred from ordering the items—food and ordering service do not become cost-prohibitive. This study devised a standardized methodology for analysing vast amounts of online user-generated content (UGC). Findings from this study can be extrapolated to other sectors and service industries such as, tourism, cleaning, transportation, hospitals and engineering especially during the pandemic.     

Terrorism and inbound tourism in Egypt: Economy-wide and distributional impacts

Following the January 2011 Revolution, Egypt experienced increasing political instability and has also been the target of intense terrorist attacks. While substantial efforts continue to be exerted by the current regime to put an end to these attacks, it is not clear whether the country's reputation as a safe tourist destination will be restored in the medium run. This paper assesses the extent of the Egyptian economy's vulnerability to a prolonged tourism shock using an economy-wide framework. The simulation results reveal that a shock to tourism has a significant impact on the Egyptian economy, as a rebound of inbound tourism substantially increases both GDP and welfare. Consequently, it pays for the government to put measures in place to moderate the effect of negative shocks to inbound tourism. A subsidy to health tourism was found to boost both economic growth and welfare.     

Cyclicality of liquidity creation: Nonlinear evidence from US bank holding companies

Using a panel smooth transition regression framework on a new proxy of the business cycle (BC) index and quarterly data of US bank holding companies from 1993Q1 to 2020Q1, our results provide empirical support for the theory that the BC has a nonlinear effect on liquidity creation. We find a positive and highly significant nonlinear effect of the BC on liquidity creation, which not only supports the pro-cyclicality of liquidity creation but also improves the liquidity creation estimation compared to previous studies. The results are robust to different proxies of the BC and model specifications. We also document that US bank holding companies create liquidity more during the expansion phase (normal times) than during the recession phase (crisis times) of the BC, suggesting an asymmetrical effect of BC changes on liquidity creation. Our findings have important implications for financial market participants by suggesting that banks should keep alternative sources of funding on hand during the BC recession phase. Insights from our study also provide policy implications for central banks and prudent supervisors to consider when incentivizing banks, for instance, by lowering regulatory requirements, adjusting the policy rate, or implementing any other quantitative easing policy during the BC recession phase to keep the financial system efficient.     

Does economic growth benefit the poor? The role of institutions and religions

This paper seeks to explain the difference across countries of the impact of national growth on the growth of the income of the poor. Traditionally, studies attempting to explain such differences investigate only the impact of some additional variables on the income level of the poor. Here, we introduce interaction terms to explain the change in the elasticity of income of the poor to national income. We focus on the role of formal and informal institutions and religions; variables which have rarely been considered in this context. The results show that only formal institutions (i.e., Resistance to corruption) and, to some extent, informal institutions (i.e., Trust all) explain the differences. Religion has no impact. The findings also show that improvements in the Resistance to corruption benefits the extremely poor more than the poor.