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The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the Yemen War on banking services (deposits and loans) at the aggregate and at the level of conventional and Islamic banks in GCC countries. The author also tests hypotheses of direct and indirect impacts of the Yemen War on bank services.

The sample comprises a total of 70 banks (45 conventional and 25 Islamic banks) over the period 2000–2018. The static and dynamic panel generalized methods of moments (GMM) estimation techniques are applied.

Empirical results indicate that the Yemen War has a significant negative direct impact on deposits and loans of GCC banks. The results lend support for the direct channel hypothesis, but not for the indirect channel hypothesis. The negative direct impact is most prominent on banks in GCC countries that are directly involved in the Yemen War, although the war has an asymmetric effect on conventional and Islamic banks, the former being more vulnerable. The overall conclusion is that the Yemen War exerts an asymmetric impact on the GCC region, across both banks and countries.

These results are a warning to policymakers to be cautious when formulating a strategy for macroeconomic stability.

It is widely recognized that the Yemen War has a significant impact on the economies of the GCC countries. However, the possible impact of the war on GCC bank services has not so far been subjected to robust empirical analysis. This paper therefore seeks to fill this gap by providing an in-depth quantitative analysis of this impact. It distinguishes between direct and indirect channels through which the Yemen War may affect bank services. It is also the first to examine the asymmetric impact of the Yemen War on the GCC region, across both banks (Islamic and conventional banks) and countries (whether or not involved in the war). The study uses both static panel and dynamic panel GMM estimation techniques to analyze the data.

This paper aims to investigate simultaneously the causality and the dynamic links between exchange rates and stock market indices. It attempts to identify the short- and long-term effect of the US dollar on major stock market indices of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South-Africa (BRICS) nations.

This paper applies a new methodology combining the panel generalized method of moments model and the panel auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL) method to investigate the existence of a causal short-/long-run relationships and dynamic dependence among all stock market returns and exchanges rates changes of BRICS countries.

Results show that exchange rate changes have a significant effect on the past and the current volatility of the BRICS stock indices. Besides, ARDL estimations reveal that exchange rate movements have a significant effect on short- and long-term stocks market indices of all BRICS countries

The findings have implications for policymakers and market participants who try to manage the exchange rate will have a different dose of intervention if they know that the effects of currency depreciation are different than appreciation. These results have important implications that investors should take into account in frequency-varying exchange rates and stock returns and regulators should consider developing sound policy measures to prevent financial risk.

The paper investigates the determinants of capital structure and the speed of adjustment of capital structure decisions of Nigerian firms.

The paper adopts three methods: difference GMM, system GMM and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA).

The empirical results show that firms' efficiency affects the capital structure decisions of Nigerian firms. At the same time, short-term debt has a higher speed of adjustment in the context of Nigerian firms. The roles of other control variables are established in the paper.

Nigerian firms should adopt short-term debt in order to achieve their targeted debt levels. Managers of Nigerian firms are also advised to be more efficient in order to attract higher performance.

The paper is the first literature to measure the efficiency of firms using SFA method. Extant studies in the literature have neglected the determinant while four papers that adopt the determinant data envelope analysis (DEA) method. This is also the first study to document the speed of adjustment in capital structure decisions in the context of Nigerian firms.

The performance of financial markets is significantly influenced by the political environment during general elections. This study investigates the effect of general elections on stock market performance in selected African markets.

Prior studies have been inconsistent in determining whether electioneering events negatively or positively influence stock market performance. The study utilized panel data set with annual observations from 1990 to 2020. The generalized method of moments (GMM) is employed to investigate the effect of electioneering and change in government on key stock market performance indicators, including stock market capitalization, stock market turnover ratio and the value of stock traded.

The study finds that electioneering activities generally have a positive impact on the performance of the stock market, whereas a change in government has a negative impact. As a result, the study recommends that stakeholders of the stock market remain vigilant and actively monitor electioneering events to devise and implement effective policies aimed at mitigating political risks during general elections. By adopting these measures, investor confidence can be significantly enhanced, fostering a more robust and secure investment environment.

The study investigates a neglected section of the literature by highlighting not only the effect of elections on stock market indicators but also possible change in government during elections.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and compare the impact of oil and gas prices changes on bank deposits at the aggregate as well as at the level of commercial and Islamic banks in Qatar over the period 2000–2016.

Using the BankScope Database as well as bank-level balance sheet and financial statements data, the authors use one-step system GMM dynamic model to examine and compare the association between oil and gas prices changes with bank deposits in Qatar. The authors also test hypotheses of direct and indirect impacts of oil and gas prices changes on bank deposits.

The results indicate that oil and gas prices changes have a direct impact on deposits of banks at the aggregate level in Qatar. However, the authors find that oil and gas price changes significantly affect deposits of Qatari commercial banks directly prompting enhanced lending by banks and the consequent business activities in the economy, while their impact on the deposits of Qatari Islamic banks is indirect, i.e. the impact is permeated through the macroeconomic and institutional characteristics of the country that are reinforced by the growing expectations and commercial sentiment of the country. The authors find that significant association between oil price changes and deposit growth during the global financial crisis 2008 has been distorted. However, the authors find that there was a sharp rise in the deposits of Islamic banks during the period of global financial crisis.

The results of this study necessitate policy measures that can counter the effects of changes in oil and gas prices on the effectiveness of bank deposits.

It is widely recognized that oil and gas prices and the level of production are of great importance to the economic development of oil and gas exporting countries. So far, however, no econometric study has been reported in the literature which analyses and compares the impact of oil and gas prices changes on bank deposits of commercial and Islamic banks and also at the aggregate level in any of the oil-exporting economies. Thus, this study provides the first empirical evidence on distinct direct and indirect channels through which oil and gas prices changes may affect bank deposits.

This paper aims to find the effects of regulatory and supervisory policies on bank risk-taking. The same regulation and supervision have different effects on bank risk-taking depending on influence factors. These factors were considered and a sample of the largest European banks from France, Germany, UK, Italy, Spain and Greece was used over the period 2005-2011.

In this paper, the author analyses the effects of regulation and supervision on risk-taking. The author uses a sample of the biggest banks from six European countries (France, UK, Germany, Italy, Spain and Greece) over the period 2005-2011. Because the applicable entry of IFRS was in 2005, thus data of European banks are not available before this date. For each country in the sample, the 10 largest banks (defined by total assets) that lend money to firms were identified. The author does not include central banks or postal banks, which generally do not lend money to firms and are described as non-banking institutions (La Porta et al., 2002).

It was found that restrictions on bank activities, supervisors’ power and capital adequacy decrease risk-taking. Thus, regulation and supervision enhance bank’s stability. While, deposit insurance increases the risk due to its association to moral hazard. Finally, it was found that strengthening regulatory and supervisory framework raises the risk-taking and weakens the stability of European banks.

The author contributes to existing empirical analyses in three ways. First, the existing literature has drawn a lot of attention on US banks. However, the purpose of this paper is to examine the biggest banks of three European leaders (France, Germany and UK) and three more European countries influenced by the recent crisis (Spain, Italy and Greece) over the period 2005-2011. Second, most studies focus mainly on the relationship between regulation and profitability, yet seldom on the relationship between regulation, supervision and risk-taking. The author focuses on this relationship. Third, this study applies the two-step dynamic panel data approach suggested by Blundell and Bond (1998) and also uses dynamic panel generalized method of moments (GMM) method to address potential problems. The two-step GMM estimator that the author uses is generally the most efficient.

Because of growing energy consumption and increasing absolute CO₂ emissions, the recent calibrations about the environmental sustainability across the globe have mandated to achieve the minimal energy consumption through employing energy-efficient technology. This study aims to estimate linkage between simple measure of energy efficiency indicator that is reciprocal of energy intensity and total factor productivity (TFP) in case of Indian paper industry for 21 major states. In addition, the study incorporates the other control variables like labour productivity, capital utilization and structure of paper industry to scrutinize their likely impact on energy efficiency performance of the industry.

To derive the plausible estimates of TFP, the study applies the much celebrated Levinsohn and Petrin (2003) methodology. Using the regional level data for the period 2001-2013, the study employs instrumental variable-generalized method of moments (GMM-IV) technique to examine the nature of relationship among the variables involved in the analysis.

An elementary examination of energy intensity shows that not all states are equally energy intensive. States like Goa, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu are less energy intensive, whereas Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Assam and Punjab are most energy-intensive states on the basis of their state averages over the whole study period. The results estimated through GMM-IV show that increasing level of TFP is associated with lower level of energy per unit of output. Along this better skills and capacity utilization are also found to have positive impact on energy efficiency performance of industry. However, the potential heterogeneity within the structure of industry itself is found responsible for its higher energy intensity.

States should ensure and undertake substantial investment projects in the research and development of energy-efficient technology and that targeted allocations could be reinforced for more fruitful results. Factors aiming at improving the labour productivity should be given extra emphasis together with capital deepening and widening, needed for energy conservation and environmental sustainability. Given the dependence of structure of paper industry on the multitude of factors like regional inequality, economic growth, industrial structure and the resource endowment together with the issues of fragmented sizes, poor infrastructure and availability and affordability of raw materials etc., states should actively promote the coordination and cooperation among themselves to reap the benefits of technological advancements through technological spill overs. In addition, owing to their respective state autonomies, state governments should set their own energy saving targets by taking into account the respective potentials and opportunities for the different industries. Despite the requirement of energy-efficient innovations, however, the cons of technological advancements and the legal frameworks on the employment structure and distributional status should be taken care of before their adoption and execution.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that empirically examines the linkage between energy efficiency and TFP in case of Indian paper industry. The application of improved methods like Levinsohn and Petrin (2003) to derive the TFP measure and the use of GMM-IV to account for potential econometric problems like that of endogeneity will again add to the novelty of study.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically analyze the determinants of capital structure and their long-run equilibrium relationships with firm-specific and macroeconomic indicators for Indian manufacturing firms.

The study is conducted using the panel semi-parametric and non-parametric regression models to identify the key determinants of capital structure. Panel cointegration models are also employed for analyzing the long-run equilibrium association of capital structure with its determinants.

The study finds that each manufacturing sector has unique determinants of capital structure. The debt level is significantly affected by asset tangibility, growth opportunity, effective tax rate, non-debt tax shield, cash flow, profitability, firm size, foreign investment, government borrowing, economic growth, and interest rate. All these firm-specific and macroeconomic variables have strong long-run equilibrium relationship with capital structure as a whole.

The study analyzes the determinants of capital structure for eight manufacturing sectors of India, which helps firm managers and policy-makers to identify appropriate factors that maximize firm value. The sector-specific features of firms may lead to a new path with regard to corporate governance and ownership structure to enhance stakeholder's satisfaction.

The use of semi-parametric and non-parametric panel regression models to analyze the determinants of capital structure, and the use of panel cointegration approach to explore the long-run equilibrium relationship between the determinants and its factors are the unique contributions of the present research.

The purpose of this paper is to examine and compare the impact of oil and gas prices shocks on the non-performing loans (NPLs) of banks at the aggregate as well as at the level of commercial and Islamic banks in Qatar over the period 2000-2016.

Using the West Texas Intermediate Database, BankScope Database, World Bank’s World Development Indicators Database, and International Monetary Fund Database, the authors use a one-step system generalized method of moments dynamic model to examine and compare the association between oil and gas prices shocks with NPLs in Qatari banks. The authors also test the hypotheses of direct and indirect impacts of oil price shocks and gas price shocks on bank NPLs.

The results indicate that oil price shocks and gas price shocks do not have directly affect NPLs of Qatari banks at the aggregate level, while they have indirect effects that are channeled through the country-specific macroeconomic and institutional factors. The authors find that oil and gas prices shocks affect NPLs of Qatari Islamic banks directly through extended oil and gas-related cash flows, while their impact on the NPLs of Qatari commercial banks is indirect. In other words, Islamic banks in Qatar greatly benefits from increased cash flow caused by the rise in the oil and gas prices, which make their NPLs, much lower than that in commercial banks. Better capital cushion, better managerial efficiency, better risk management, and liquidity management systems should be used by the Islamic banks in Qatar to expand their customer base. The authors also find that positive fiscal stance of the government reduces the NPLs in both commercial and Islamic banks.

The results of this study necessitate policy measures that can counter the effects of changes in oil and gas prices on the growth of bank NPLs.

It is widely recognized that oil and gas prices and the level of production are of great importance to the economic development of oil and gas-exporting countries. So far, however, no econometric study has been reported in the literature which analyses and compares the impact of oil and gas prices shocks on the NPLs of commercial and Islamic banks and also at the aggregate level in any of the oil economies. Thus, this study provides the first empirical evidence on distinct direct and indirect channels through which oil and gas prices shocks may affect bank NPLs.

The paper aims to empirically examine the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows and digitalization on employment opportunities in selected 70 developing economies across the world over the period of 2001–2019. The same empirical investigations are also carried out on two groups of these developing countries created on the basis of the levels of FDI inflows and digitalization.

The study uses various panel unit root tests followed by the estimations of the generalized method of moments in the dynamic panel framework, using secondary data collected from the World Bank (2020), International Labour Organization (2020) and International Telecommunication Union (2020).

Empirical findings reveal that both FDI inflows and digitalization have positive effects on employment; however, the extent of the impact of digitalization is greater than that of FDI inflows in developing economies, mostly in countries with relatively low FDI inflows and low digitalization.

Conventionally, FDI inflows accelerate economic growth and thus improve the labour market in host countries. However, FDI inflows into developing countries with low-skilled labours may limit job creation, particularly during the process of digitalization. This study shows that despite a much moderate impact of FDI inflows, digital transformation supports a higher employment in developing economies with low level of FDI inflows and digitalization.