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The present study aimed to examine the relationship between information and communication technologies (ICT) diffusion, financial development and economic growth in the panel of developing countries for 2005–2019.

The study employed the principal component analysis (PCA) to extract the index of ICT diffusion. First-generation panel unit root tests such as Levine Lin Chu (LLC), Im Pesaran Shin (IPS), Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) and Phillips and Perron (PP) were employed to check the stationarity of the variables. Pedroni and Kao co-integration techniques were used to examine the existence of the long-run relationship, and co-integration coefficients were estimated using FMOLS and dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS). The panel Granger causality approach examined the short-run and long-run causality.

The results confirmed that ICT diffusion, financial development and trade openness accelerate growth, whereas inflation dampens economic growth. Further, the causality test showed bidirectional causality between ICT growth and financial development growth but a unidirectional causality from financial development to ICT diffusion in developing countries.

The study recommends synchronizing public and private sector investment for a synergistic effect on ICT infrastructure and adequate investment in the financial sector to increase the growth rate in developing countries. Economic policies should be adopted toward incentives and subsidies to ensure affordable ICT services for disadvantaged communities. Also, training programs focussing on enhancing digital literacy to enable all segments of the population to use digital platforms for financial services are recommended.

The study aims to investigate the nexus between total factor productivity and tourism growth in Latin American countries for time series data from 1995 to 2017.

Using the extension of the Granger noncausality test in the nonlinear time-varying of Ajmi et al. (2015), the study points out the interconnectedness between the variables during the period.

The study found nonlinear causality between the variables. Particularly, studying the conclusions for the time-varying Granger causality fashion, it can be noticed that the one-way causality from total factor productivity to tourism growth is obtained for Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Uruguay and Venezuela, while the vice versa is confirmed for Chile, Ecuador and Nicaragua. Lastly, the study dissected the plots of the curve causality.

In view of the results, some crucial policy implications could be suggested, such as, under certain circumstances and as an exceptional case, the use of policy instruments such as targeted investment, marketing and the support of tourism organizations focused on driving a tourism-led-based productivity and/or tourism programs and projects.

The current work is distinguished from the existing body of understanding in several substantial directions. This work explores, for the first time, the linkages between the total factor productivity index and tourism growth for Latin American countries. No single attempt has been known to investigate this interaction by using nonlinear causality, and this study determines the shape of the curve between the total factor productivity index and tourism growth for each country.

This study empirically aims to analyze the transmission of monetary policy in consideration of asymmetry based on the Bank of the Lao PDR (BOL)'s monetary policy tools and real and financial variables in the domestic market.

This study adopts two approaches, conventional vector autoregression (VAR) and asymmetric VAR, to investigate the impact of monetary policy on macroeconomic variables including inflation and real GDP growth in the Lao PDR.

Under a highly dollarized monetary regime, the policy rate change plays a weaker role compared with M0, which exerts significantly positive effects on real GDP growth and inflation. The results of the asymmetric VAR model further substantiate that the real economy responds to a positive M0 shock (easing monetary policy) rather than a negative shock (tightening monetary policy).

Overall estimation results suggest that the effectiveness of monetary policy is limited in Laos, which would take priority over efforts to strengthen the development of the short-term financial market and de-dollarization.

This study can fill the gap in the literature in which the discussions on the transmission mechanism of monetary policy in the BOL's monetary policy are still little known.

This study aims to assess the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on growth in presence of host country characteristics, namely, economic stability, human capital, financial development and trade openness, in the fastest emerging Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) economies, considered to be significant FDI destinations.

The panel data for the variables under study, collected from World Investment Reports published by World Bank, are analyzed using feasible generalized least squares method to examine the relationship between the dependent and explanatory variables over the period 1987–2018. The interaction effect has been studied to examine the growth impact of FDI in presence of host country characteristics.

The findings revealed that FDI does not exert a significant impact on the economic growth of BRICS individually but has a significant growth impact only in presence of host country characteristics. FDI on interacting with financial development, trade openness and human capital exerts a positive impact on the economic growth of BRICS economies, and on interacting with economic instability (inflation), FDI has a negative impact on growth.

The study has implications for policy makers of BRICS countries who are suggested to work toward the development of financial markets, trade liberalization and human capital development to realize the positive growth impact of FDI.

Very few studies have been conducted to examine the growth effect of FDI in BRICS economies, which are considered to be the fastest-growing economies and dominant players in the global investment landscape. Assessing the interaction of FDI with absorptive capacities/host country characteristics to study its growth impact in BRICS using long data and robust panel data methodology is an original contribution of this paper toward the existing body of knowledge.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse if the divergences in the economic growth of the Spanish regions are a result of sectoral differences, company size or technological level of the new firms that emerge in the market.

For this purpose, a model is specified and estimated in which the total factor productivity of Spanish regions is explained by business dynamics, innovation, human capital and the level of entrepreneurship in each region.

The results obtained lead the authors to conclude that entrepreneurship understood as both the creation of new firms and entrepreneurial activity, have a positive effect on productive efficiency and can explain the differences in the economic growth of the regions. In addition, the stock of human capital and the promotion of innovation act as catalysts for the productive efficiency of the regions. However, the results show that it is not enough to generate new firms to boost economic growth; these businesses must also be oriented towards sectors that promote technological innovation and with the objective to reach an adequate size.

Empirical studies use either the creation of new firms or the index of entrepreneurial activity as alternative measures of entrepreneurship. In this research, however, both variables are considered together. Specifically, the creation of new companies is used as a measure of regional business dynamics, and the entrepreneurial activity index, provided by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, as a measure of regional entrepreneurship. The main novelty of this paper’s approach is that it considers different types of entrepreneurial capital in considering productive sector, size and technological level of the new companies.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the link between the financial performance of Islamic finance and economic growth in all of Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Turkey and Saudi Arabia within the endogenous growth model framework.

This study applied dynamic panel system GMM to estimate the impact of the financial performance of Islamic finance on economic growth using quarterly data (2014:1-2018:4). CAMELS system parameters were employed as variables of the financial performance of Islamic finance and gross domestic product (GDP) as a proxy of economic growth. The sample contained all Islamic banks working in the five countries.

The findings demonstrated that the only significant factor of the financial performance of Islamic finance, which affects the endogenous economic growth, is profitability through return on equity (ROE). The experimental findings also indicated the necessity of stimulating other financial performance factors of Islamic finance to achieve a significant contribution to economic growth.

The analysis in this paper would fill the literature gap by investigating the link between financial performance of Islamic finance and economic growth, as this study serves as a guide for the academians, researchers and decision-makers who want to achieve economic growth through stimulating Islamic finance in the banking sector. However, this study may well be extended to investigate the link between the financial performance of Islamic finance and economic growth over the Z-score model as another measure for the financial performance of Islamic finance.

This paper is the first that investigates the link between financial performance of Islamic finance and economic growth empirically using CAMELS parameters within the endogenous growth model to provide robust information about this link based on a sample of the top pioneer Islamic finance countries.

This paper aims to study the inter-sectoral linkages in the Egyptian economy, to increase the efficiency of allocating L.E 100bn fiscal stimulus package (FSP) to tackle the economic fallout from COVID-19 based on the strength of the backward and forward linkages of various sectors, and the values of both employment and value-added multipliers. The paper also measures the impact of the new FSP on the capability of various sectors in creating job opportunities and increasing economic growth.

The paper studies the intersectoral linkages by calculating backward and forward linkages index based on the latest input and output tables available for the Egyptian economy published in 2018. It also depends on a bivariate optimization model to distribute new investments allocated through the FSP based on the values of both employment and value-added multiplier for those sectors. The paper calculated both employment and value-added coefficients to measure the impact of the FSP on creating job opportunities and increasing growth rates.

Based on the results of the empirical analysis, both key sectors (with strong backward and forward linkages) and sectors with strong backward linkages have the highest impact on creating job opportunities and increasing growth rates in the Egyptian economy, which means that allocating FSPs in a way which targets those sectors, especially during economic crisis, could help in increasing the positive impacts of those packages.

The paper is based on the unbalanced growth theory of Hirschman and uses the empirical analysis to study the intersectoral linkages and allocate new investments through FSP through different sectors. The main policy implication of the empirical results of this paper suggests targeting the key sectors and the sectors with strong backward linkages during tough economic times related to COVID-19, to increase the positive impact of the package on the whole economy.

The purpose of this study is to investigate long-run and short-run relationships between trade diversification, financial system development, capital formation and economic growth.

ARDL estimation approach is applied to analyze long-run and short-run relationships between the financial system development, capital formation, economic growth and trade diversification in case of the Sultanate of Oman over the period 39 years starting from 1979 till 2017.

The results show that financial system development and economic growth has a positive impact on trade diversification in the short-run and long-run. However, capital formation has a negative impact on trade diversification in the short run and long run. The negative relationship between trade diversification and capital formation implies that over the period of study, the investment in capital goods was made to enhance the production capacity of the oil sector to maximize revenue.

This research is limited to analyze long-run and short-run relationship between the financial system development, capital formation and economic growth and trade diversification in case of Sultanate of Oman.

To achieve the diversification goal, the policymakers need to formulate policies to strengthen the financial system and invest in infrastructure development to promote the non-oil sector. The research findings of this study will provide insights to the policymakers to formulate an effective diversification policy.

This research contributes to the existing literature by providing empirical evidence of the short-run and long-run analysis of the selected variables in the context of an oil-dependent country.

This study examines the causal relationship between information communication technology (ICT) and economic growth in high-income and middle-income Asian countries.

This study utilises a high-quality data from 25 Asian countries from 2000 to 2018. This study presents the robustness results by employing panel cointegration and estimation procedures to account for the endogeneity and cross-sectional dependence issues.

The results illustrate that high-income Asian countries have achieved positive and significant economic development from high Internet penetration. Additionally, the middle-income countries have started to benefit from ICT Internet. The findings show that the telephone line and mobile phone penetration is highly capable of promoting economic growth in middle-income Asian countries.

In high-income Asia countries, an appropriate ICT infrastructure policy will support feasible ICT penetration, which may drive the processes of economic development and innovation that contribute to economic growth. Moreover, in middle-income Asian countries, the establishment of better-quality ICT service and infrastructure is more critical. Policymakers should accommodate sufficient support to establish the ICT infrastructure and expand ICT penetration.

This study reveals that high-income Asian countries have been more proactive and effective than middle-income countries in embracing ICT to foster economic growth. Examining the case of high-income and middle-income Asian countries provides comprehensive insight for policymakers regarding the relevance of ICT in boosting economic growth through the advantages of technology expansion.

The purpose of this study is to provide new insights into the relationship between fiscal policy and total factor productivity (TFP) while accounting for several economic and econometric issues of the phenomenon like non-stationarity, fiscal feedback effects, persistence in productivity, country heterogeneity and unobserved global shocks and local spillovers affecting heterogeneously the countries in the sample.

The paper is empirical. It builds an Error Correction Model (ECM) specification within a dynamic heterogeneous framework with common correlated effects and models both reverse causality and feedback effects.

The results of this study highlight some new findings relative to the existing related literature. The outcomes suggest some relevant evidence at both the academic and policy levels: (1) the causal effects going from fiscal deficit/surplus to TFP are heterogeneous across countries; (2) the effects depend on the time horizon considered; (3) the long-run dynamics of TFP are positively impacted by improvements in fiscal budget, but only if the austerity measures do not exert slowdowns in aggregate growth.

The main originality of this study is methodological, with possible extensions to related phenomena. Relative to the existing literature, the gains of this study rely on the way econometric techniques, recently proposed in the literature, are adapted to the economic relationship of interest. The endogeneity due to the existence of reverse causality is modelled without implying relevant performance losses of the models. Moreover, this is the first article that questions whether the effects of fiscal budget on productivity depend on the impact of the former on aggregate output growth, thus emphasising the importance of the quality of fiscal adjustments.