Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja

Climate complexities and environmental problems not only brought changes in organizational practices but also changed the consumer purchasing pattern. Consumers nowadays have become more cautious regarding the consumption pattern of firms due to ecological footprints. This increased awareness influences their buying decisions pattern which leads to the increased demand of sustainable products. Eco-innovation, in this regard, appears to be an effective tool that helps firms to incorporate ecological constraints into business practices in order to develop green branding which ultimately leads to green loyalty. Drawing on literature from existing literature, the study developed a complex framework and established the plausible relationship among outlined constructs. By utilizing PLS methodology, measurement and structural models were assessed. Results echo that eco-innovation and green branding lead to sustainable product. Moreover, evidence also indicate that eco-innovation, and sustainability positively influence green loyalty. Based on the evidence, study proposed some implications which may be helpful for policy makers to maintain the sustainability of a firm. ARTICLE HISTORY

In the tax psychology literature, there is a lack of empirical evidence on the degree of distributive justice in taxation. This article aims to test the relationship between trust in public programmes and distributive justice in taxation at the cross-country level. The sample consists of 47 countries. Trust in public programmes and distributive justice in taxation are measured based on data collected from Wave 7 of the World Values Survey, which took place worldwide in 2017-2022. An Ordered Probit Model was utilised for the empirical analysis. This study finds that if taxpayers support preferential organisations like the police and universities, they are less likely to support distributive justice, where the rich are taxed to support the poor. On the other side, if taxpayers support equitable organisations such as armed forces, courts, civil service, and elections, then they are more likely to believe in taxing the rich to support the poor. The current study’s findings have policy implications for governments intending to improve tax revenue collection. Additionally, the practical implication of the current study is that governments willing to combat income inequality should consider the differences between preferential and equitable organisations in their decision-making. There is congruence between taxpayers’ feelings toward distributive justice and their confidence in equitable organisations.

Fiscal decentralization is the source of China’s rapid economic growth, but inevitably leads to a surge in total carbon emissions. We verify whether the intermediary mechanism of real estate development and the urban construction investment bonds (UCIB) can share the fiscal pressure of local governments to provide empirical support to clarify and solve the realistic decentralization dilemma. This study conducted a spatial analysis of panel data from 266 Chinese prefecture-level cities from 2006 to 2019 and obtains the following findings. (1) Carbon emissions are spatially correlated, displaying the characteristics of ‘one glory and one loss’. (2) Fiscal decentralization drives an increase in carbon emissions over the entire spatial region. (3) The decomposition results show that although fiscal decentralization aggravates local carbon emission growth, it benefits the carbon emission reduction of neighboring regions. (4) The eastern regions’ fiscal decentralization does not significantly affect carbon emissions, whereas the central and western regions’ fiscal decentralization causes an upsurge in total carbon emissions. (5) Fiscal decentralization has promoted the prosperous development of the real estate industry, which positively influences carbon emissions. (6) The UCIB has a negative moderating effect on fiscal decentralization and carbon emissions, implying that it plays a role in alleviating financial pressure on local governments. Accordingly, we propose relevant countermeasures: adjusting the degree of decentralization, controlling real estate development, and issuing UCIB.

Blind-box consumption, a phenomenon sweeping through the retailmarket in China, is the process of buying an unlabelled box contain-ing assorted and random novelty gifts from different retailers.Despite the intensity of its emergence, the extent of research on thephenomenon from a marketing perspective has beenscarce.Thispaper identifies factors likely influencing Chinese consumers partici-pating in blend-box consumption. These factors include brand famil-iarity emotional value and speculative potential. Conceptual issuesdiscussed include the role of emotions and cognition as forcesunderpinning shopping behavior. The paper also highlights the mar-keting strategy features that have successfully driven the blend-boxconsumption experience.

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges humanity faces globally. For this reason, governmental efforts to reduce emissions of polluting gases have multiplied in the last decade. Against this panorama, petroleum companies have adopted a strategic policy focused on energy diversification, intending to contribute to sustainable development. In the case of Spain, wind energy has been one of the renewable energies that have attracted the most investment from petroleum companies. In particular, this trend is especially acute in Galicia (a region located in the northwest of Spain), since its biophysical conditions and, above all, its institutional framework for the promotion of photovoltaic energy has aroused the interest of petroleum companies. The objective of this article is to perform a feasibility analysis of an average wind project in Galicia. Through the calculation of the initial investment, the necessary financing, and the preparation of balance sheets and profit and loss accounts. For this purpose, the methodology used is based on the preparation of a feasibility plan, through which the necessary investment is analyzed and the flows of receipts and payments generated by the company are considered. In this way, this analysis is intended to be useful for companies that are considering the appropriateness/inappropriateness to carry out this type of investment. The results show a high internal rate of return, which indicates the high profitability of the project.

Since the last three decades, the natural resources and energy sector has been regarded as a substantial determinant of economic growth and prosperity. However, the literature is still contradictory and scant for BRICS economies and needs more empirical evidence for appropriate policies. This study aims to analyze the influence of natural resources and cleaner energy on economic performance in the presence of consumption expenditure. Using second-generation diagnostic , unit root, and cointegration tests, the results verify the long-run equilibrium association between the variables during 1990-2021. Due to non-linear data dispersion, the study uses the method of moment quantile regression. It concludes that both natural resources and cleaner energy have an asymmetric influence on the economic growth of these nations. The region's significant factors of economic growth are electricity production from renewable sources and oil rents. Renewable electricity output and mineral rents adversely affect economic growth and performance. Besides, consumption expenditure is also negatively and significantly affecting economic growth. Based on the empirical outcomes, this study also suggested policies that could benefit the BRICS economic growth and performance. ARTICLE HISTORY

This study analyzes the effects of institutional factors on adopting sustainability reporting in the worldwide tourism industry. Initially, it compiled the data on the organizational environment, including environment, social and governance performance, and sector-level macroeconomic control variables such as economic growth, exports, and tourism receipts from 2001 to 2019. For empirical estimations, it applies multiple panel estimators; pooled ordinary least square (OLS), fixed effect, and random effects model, while dynamic Generalized Method of Moments is applied to address endogeneity issues in panel data. The results report that environmental, social, and governance indicators are essential for sustainable tourism. Mainly, ecological and social circumstances are more prominent than others. Further, ecological innovation is considered essential for sustainability in this sector. This research suggests an innovative theoretical approach that exposes the importance of sustainability reporting in the tourism industry. It also provides the guideline to the regulators that they should expand their focus on the regulations of sustainability reporting on the tourism industry.

This study examines how the dividend payout of Chilean firms is associated with economic policy uncertainty (EPU), while controlling for ownership concentration and free cash flow, to consider agency problems. Its contribution is twofold. First, it detects a non-linear, U-shaped relation between EPU and dividend payout, which is a novel finding. Second, this result holds only in cases of high EPU. No significant relationship in cases of low EPU was detected. The sample comprises an unbalanced panel data of 1034 observations from 2005 to 2016. Including ownership concentration as an independent variable leads to a negative association between it and dividend payout, showing a potential agency problem between the main shareholder and the minorities. If free cash flow is considered in the model, then the results show a positive relation between free cash flow and dividend payout, which implies the mitigation of the agency problem. Finally, once both variables (ownership concentration and free cash flow) are considered together as explanatory variables, only free cash flow turns out to be statistically significant and positively associated with dividend payout.

It is of great significance to improve the corporate governance structure to study whether independent directors play the role of ‘vase’ in the governance of listed companies. Based on the social network theory, this article constructs the social network formed by interlocking independent directors and examines the influence of independent director network on stock price crash risk. The mechanism test analyses the mediating effect of principal–agent problem and large shareholder’s tunnelling on stock price crash risk. The empirical research shows that the higher the network centrality of the company’s independent directors, the lower the stock price crash risk. The independent director network can restrain the company’s stock price crash risk by reducing two types of agency costs. Further research finds that the influence of independent director network on stock price crash risk is more pronounced in companies with unreasonable ownership structure, poor internal governance and weak external supervision. The research conclusions have important implications for listed companies to reduce the risk of stock price crash and maintain the stability of the capital market.

For the problem of optimal dynamic pricing and coordination of fresh agricultural products supply chain, the differential equations related to freshness and market needs are constructed, and the optimal control theory is used to solve the optimal strategy under centralized and decentralized decision-making, i.e., optimal selling price and optimal preservation input. The equilibrium results under the two scenarios are also compared. The comparison finds that the decentralized scenario leads to low overall supply chain profits, based on which a two-part pricing contract is proposed to coordinate the supply chain operating companies. The results show that freshness effectiveness directly impacts pricing, and the centralized scenario does not necessarily lead to high prices for fresh produce due to the ‘double marginal effect’. the two pricing contracts can successfully coordinate the supply chain. The freshness effectiveness increases the supply chain coordination ability of fresh produce suppliers, while operational inefficiencies, on the contrary, decrease the coordination ability.

This paper analyses the impact of cyclical external shocks on the macroeconomic performance of Eurozone and EU member countries. The latter is achieved through a comparative study of two EU countries, Slovenia and Croatia, of which only the former is a Eurozone member state. Cross-country differences are observed over the 2000-2018 period, thus covering all stages of the economic cycle. The primary hypothesis is that the Eurozone economic integration provides its members with comparably greater macroeconomic stability and balanced growth rates. The research elaborates on the possibilities and effects of more autonomous macroeconomic adjustments tailored to the specific needs of non-Eurozone EU countries. Methodologically, the study exhibits an intricate nexus among theoretical, empirical, and institutional economics and shows that the impact of the country’s international interconnectedness, stemming from the economic and geographical links, bears greater importance than Eurozone membership. Concurrently, this analysis confirms that whether the Eurozone’s benefits outweigh the shortcoming of monetary sovereignty abnegation depends predominantly on the capabilities of individual countries and Eurozone’s institutions to design and execute an effective monetary-fiscal policy mix.

The existing millennium documents the most adverse consequences of global warming which in contrast to pre-industrial era are more devastating. Thus, these prevailing consequences raise numerous concerns regarding the well-being of future and current generation. Scholars, in this regard, are putting efforts punctiliously towards methods that could halt the surging emissions. This paper also attempts to contributes to existing literature by reporting the empirical evidences regarding the role of energy transition technologies, renewable energy production (REP), trade openness, green investment, and carbon taxes in carbon neutrality in Chinse economy covering the time span of 1980–2020. By employing Dynamic Auto-regressive Distributed Lags (DARDL) model to check the association, findings exposed that electricity production from water sources, electricity production from solar sources, REP, trade openness, green investment, and carbon taxes are negatively correlated with CO2 emissions. Study offers policymakers a help in formulating policies related to achieve carbon neutrality using renewable sources of energy production, carbon taxes, and green investment.

Taking the implementation of Cleaner Production Standards at the industry level in China as a quasi-natural experiment, the impact of these standards on enterprises' exit behavior was empirically analyzed by using the Difference-in-Differences method. Results suggested that the implementation of Cleaner Production Standards reduced the probability of enterprises exiting the market. A parallel trend test, Propensity Score Matching (PSM), and the exclusion of other policy factors were then used to verify the robustness of this finding. The impact mechanism test showed that implementation of the standards reduced the probability of enterprises exiting the market through improving total factor productivity and promoting enterprise product innovation. The heterogeneity test revealed that, on the one hand, the implementation of Cleaner Production Standards can reduce the probability of R&D intensive industries and medium-sized enterprises exiting the market, and protect innovative and moderately sized enterprises. On the other hand, the implementation of Cleaner Production Standards can increase the probability of state-owned enterprises and small-scale enterprises exiting the market and optimize the allocation of resources among enterprises. This paper has important implications for China's future approach to environmental policy formulation as well as the optimization of domestic enterprise structure.

Globally, carbon dioxide (CO2) emission is a significant element of environmental pollution because of corrupt economic activities that requires regulators’ focus and researchers’ emphasis. Hence, the current research evaluates economic growth on CO2 emissions in Chinese economy. The article has taken six factors of economic growth on board along with sustainable innovation to predict CO2 emissions. Secondary data, in this regard, has been used which has been borrowed from World Bank from 1986 to 2020. Augmented Dickey-Fuller test is employed to scrutnize unit root, while QARDL model has been run to identify the association between the constructs. Findings revealed that factors such as gross domestic product, national income, human capital, employment ratio, inflation and exports signifies CO2 emissions, hence are corrupt the environment. While sustainability oriented innovation reduces the emissions. This study monitors the policymakers while formulating regulators related to reducing the level of CO2 emission using economic growth factors and sustainability-oriented eco-innovation.

The response of energy firms to green credit policy is of great significance, which is related to the emission reduction effect of green finance and transformation of energy firms. This paper analyzes the impact of green credit policy on the growth of energy firms based on the data of Chinese listed companies from 2009 to 2019. The empirical results show that green credit policy has significantly promoted the growth of energy firms. Further research shows that green credit policy promoted the growth of energy firms by reducing financing costs and promoting green innovation. Besides, the owned firms, big-scale firms and firms in central and eastern China are more susceptible to the impacts of the green credit policy. This study is relevant to the implementation of green credit policies and the promotion of the development and transformation of energy firms.

The purpose of this study is to form a methodological approach to assessing the impact of the effectiveness of business process modelling under the COVID-19 pandemic, which creates an opportunity to diagnose the impact of business modelling results on the company’s activities, as well as to make justified management decisions concerning the integrated development of the most relevant and significant business components of the model. The research methodology consists of correlation and regression analysis, scenario modelling, and hierarchical synthesis. The research was carried out according to the materials from 16 road transport companies in Ukraine engaged in cargo transportation. Determination of the effectiveness indicators of business processes modelling per their quality, cost, and speed made it possible to identify leaders and outsiders among the companies under study based on the specified parameters. Regression analysis proves that the speed of business processes is the most significant factor in modelling efficiency for the surveyed companies. According to the determination of the impact of the business processes modelling effectiveness on the companies’ financial efficiency and productivity, the connection between these indicators was diagnosed under the COVID-19 pandemic. The most effective scenario for the vast majority of the studied companies under the pandemic circumstances is one that focuses on the cost and speed of business processes. Modelling business processes based on the scenario of concentration on the cost and speed indicators of business processes have the highest positive effect of their modelling, which contributes to increasing the financial efficiency and productivity of the companies under study. The study confirms the need for integrated business processes modelling, which considers different combinations of the resulting indicators and contributes to increasing the efficiency of business processes modelling and the companies’ financial efficiency and productivity under the COVID-19 pandemic.

This research investigates the role of digital trade, human development, globalization, and green innovations on ecological footprints (EFP) for BRICS countries. Unlike the earlier studies, this research expands the empirical contribution while examining the moderating effect of green technologies on the relationship between stated explanatory variables and EFP. Initially, we testify the presence of cross-sectional dependence, unit root tests, cointegration, and slope heterogeneity and subsequently apply cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lags (CS-ARDL) using annual data from 1995 to 2019. The empirical findings exhibit the significance of digital trade, human development, and green technology innovations in complementing low EFP in the long run. However, globalization tends to increase ecological footprints. Moreover, the findings in the short run provide a symmetrical (positive/negative) effect of stated explanatory variables on EFP; however, their marginal impact is lower. Additionally, the moderating effect of green technologies on the relationship between digital trade and EFP and between human development and EFP is significantly negative, supplementing the existing association. Therefore, an inclusive digital and human development policy is imperative to ensure sustainable ecology.

Financial services are an essential source of capital and play a crucial and significant role in urban–rural integration. We analyse empirically the effect of digital finance on urban–rural integration and its mechanism using provincial panel data in China for 2011–2020. The results indicate that digital finance contributes to urban–rural integration. Moreover, for every 1 standard deviation increase in digital finance development, the degree of urban–rural integration increases by 7.7% on average, and it is more evident in China’s eastern regions, with regional heterogeneity. The level of entrepreneurship can be a vital channel for digital finance to facilitate urban–rural integration. The mechanism of action of digital finance to facilitate urban–rural integration by improving entrepreneurship levels is primarily revealed in the group with lower levels of human capital, which exhibits certain inclusive characteristics. This study is conducive to developing a policy for promoting the free flow of resources between urban and rural areas and advancing urban–rural integration.

The time-varying spillover effect of China’s crude oil futures market and new energy market has an important impact on promoting the green development of China’s economy. This study uses the dynamic connectedness method based on DCC-GARCH model to analyze the time-varying spillover effects between Shanghai crude oil futures and various industries in new energy markets. The results show that there was a stable volatility correlation and high degree of connectedness between Shanghai crude oil futures and the new energy stock market. The new energy vehicle and energy storage industries were driving the market, while Shanghai crude oil futures and both wind power and photovoltaic industries were driven by the market.With the analysis results, the study provides scientific policy recommendations for the development of China’s crude oil futures market and new energy market, which are expected to contribute to the sustainable development of the energy market.

The digital economy has become important in the world’s major economies. Improving energy efficiency is the key to achieving stable and sustainable economic growth and carbon emissions reduction. However, the impact of the digital economy on energy efficiency remains unclear. Accordingly, this study examines the relationship between the digital economy and energy efficiency from the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) perspective. In doing so, this study confirms that the digital economy follows the EKC in energy utilization efficiency, and there is a U-shaped relationship between the digital economy and energy efficiency, although this relationship differs from one region to another. This study also discusses the moderating effects of environmental regulation and innovation capability in this U-shaped relationship, confirming that they have a moderating effect on this relationship, reducing the inflection point of the U-shaped relationship, and reducing the negative influence of the digital economy on the energy efficiency and enhancing the positive impact. This study can serve as a reference for policymakers and professionals in emerging economies, helping them achieve a win-win situation for economic development and reducing carbon emissions.

Although the Upper Echelon Theory predicts that C.E.O.s play a relevant role in corporate risk-taking, the C.E.O.s’ traits that can be associated with such risk are not well-explored. Our study fills this gap and shows the effect of C.E.O.s’ characteristics on corporate risk-taking of a hand-collected sample of 369 Latin American listed firms. We study six traits: C.E.O.s’ age, tenure, gender, duality (i.e., holding concurrent Chairman and C.E.O. roles), educational background, and career horizon. We find that age increases risk-taking. However, when the C.E.O.'s age reaches a given point, their concern about reputation and retirement results in a negative relationship. We also find that as C.E.O. tenure increases, corporate risk begins to decrease. Nevertheless, there comes a point at which the C.E.O. uses their knowledge and their overconfidence to make risky financial decisions. Female C.E.O.s are negatively related to risk-taking, while C.E.O. duality, C.E.O. educational background, foreign C.E.O.s, and a C.E.O.'s career horizon have the opposite effect. Our study is novel because of the focus on emerging markets and because of the use of different market-based measures of risk-taking. We provide policymakers, investors, and practitioners with fresh evidence about how C.E.O.s’ risk aversion shapes the firm’s risk-taking behaviour.

Advanced business services (ABS) are seen as generators and disseminators of innovation among their client companies, and their use by client companies can improve efficiency and productivity. However, one question that has not been addressed is whether ABS provision can be an explanatory factor for the total productivity of the factors (TPF). This paper aims to determine whether the innovation generated and/or transmitted by ABS companies is reflected in the TPF growth in the manufacturing sector. For this purpose, a Cobb-Douglas function was estimated using panel data analysis on data of ten OECD countries in the period 1977-1996. ABS labour was considered the proxy variable for the provision of these types of services and treated as a separate factor in the production process. The quantitative study shows that the contribution of labour endowment in ABS to the efficiency and productivity of manufacturing industry is significant, that it generates spillovers and that it is an explanatory factor for the TPF.

Despite the importance of the new service development process for new service success, little is known about the drivers of new service development process excellence or how to execute this process while including all important stages and guaranteeing excellence in the execution of each stage. This study analyses the role of innovative culture, market orientation, and top management support as antecedents of new service development process excellence in hotels. The results obtained for a sample of 133 hotels provide useful insights into how to improve new service performance. Both innovative culture and market orientation have a positive impact on new service development process excellence, although top management support has the strongest effect. New service development process excellence benefits new service quality, which reinforces new service market performance. The robustness of our findings is tested considering innovation type (radical versus incremental services).

Nonetheless, the risk factors such as economic risk, political risk, and financial risk have their respective pros and cons in various economic and financial investigations. Yet, the influence of these risk factors on sustainable venture capital is hardly studied in the existing literature. In this sense, the present research tends to investigate the influence of these risks on sustainable venture capital while considering the role of human capital in the US economy. This study uses novel time series approaches using quarterly data from 2006Q1 to 2020Q4. The estimated results validated each variable’s stationarity and cointegration between the study variables. The asymmetric data distribution leads to the employment of a novel method of moment quantile regression, which illustrates the positive association between economic risk, political risk, human capital, and sustainable venture capital. On the contrary, financial risk is found adversely affecting the sustainable venture capital in the country. The robustness of the model is examined by employing the bootstrap quantile regression. This study suggests minimizing economic, political, and financial risks and increasing investment in human capital to encourage sustainable venture capital.

The study analyzes the dynamic influences of composite fiscal decentralization index (CFD), human development, and research and development (R&D) expenditures on green innovations in G7 countries from 1990 to 2018. For empirical estimation, the study applies the cross-section autoregressive distributed lag method to resolve the issues of cross-section dependency and slope heterogeneity in the panel data. The results exhibit that CFD, human capital development, and R&D spending encourage green technologies in the long run. The short-run findings are also compatible with the long-run; however, their magnitude is smaller than the long-run except for CFD. In addition, the error correction term also indicates a negative and significant coefficient value, endorsing the conversion towards the long-run equilibrium position with a 25.3% annual adjustment rate in case of any shock in the short run. The robustness of the estimates is confirmed through the augmented mean group and common correlated effect mean group. These findings recommend that G7 countries should encourage human resources and R&D expenditures through education and renewable energy investment, respectively. In addition, local governments’ allocation of resources to promote green technologies must be monitored and regulated by a strong institutional framework.

The paper aims to analyse the role of asset impairment and biological assets in the company’s audit and to estimate the impact of asset impairment losses and biological asset scale on audit fees. The object of the investigation was A-share listed companies from 2012 to 2021 in China. The study analysed 370 listed companies to obtain 28741 observations, of which 367 listed companies had 1854 observations with biological assets. The study applied the fixed effect model, three-step mediation test, Sobel mediation test and PSM matching test. The results show that asset impairment loss and biological asset size are significantly positively correlated with audit fees, and the scale of biological assets will strengthen the positive correlation between asset impairment loss and audit fees. It is further found that asset impairment and biological assets positively affect audit fees through two parallel intermediary paths of "audit working hours" and "violations". Finally, based on the above findings, this paper also attempts to make optimisation recommendations for the four relevant stakeholders involved in the audit. This paper contributes to improving accounting standards for biological assets and enriching the research on audit pricing based on the empirical justifications of their role in the company’s audit.

The difference in self-identity among migrant workers of the new generation leads them towards different desires regarding urbanization. In this regard, it is imperative to explore the influence of self-identity on the migrant workers’ willingness to stay. To explore the phenomenon empirically, the current study used data sourced from the China Migrants Dynamics Survey (CMDS), during the year, 2017. The study employed the Heckman two-stage selection model to explore the study objective. Further, the study also employed the machine learning methods for robustness check. The outcome showed that the “I” identity has a more significant impact on the urbanization by migrant workers belonging to the “post-90s”. In comparison, the identity of “Me” has a more significant impact on the urbanization by migrant workers belonging to the era of the 1980s. And it is clear that if “post-80s” and “post-90s” migrant workers are uniformly divided into the union of new generation, the differences and characteristics within them may conceal. The overall findings proposes that based on the differences in migrant workers’ self-identity, both born in the 1980s and 1990s, there is a need to formulate related policies to promote their residence and boost urbanization.

Holding excessive financial assets will lead to corporate financialization, making investors underestimate its risks in front of extreme benefits and the “reservoir effect” in boom periods, especially in rapid-growing emerging economies. Few studies have explored the investors’ real perceptions and attitudes towards such risks when dealing with unexpected shocks. The 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) provides new insights into these questions. Using event study method, this study examines how investors react to corporate financialization in the risk-release condition. First, we find that firms with more financial asset holdings experience significant lower market return during the COVID-19 pandemic. Second, we find that the pandemic-induced drop in stock returns is milder when firms hold more low-liquidity or safe financial assets, have higher solvency, are less exposed to COVID-19 pandemic and have better information environment. These findings show that the investors’ attitude is widely negative towards corporate financialization when the negative shock comes and strong financial flexibility and good corporate governance can alleviate the risk. It implicates that the hidden risks of corporate financialization can be perceived by investors and responded by “voting with their feet” and the managers should be alert to it rather than just seeking financial benefits.

This study explores whether and how the development of green finance can facilitate the social responsibility of highly polluting enterprises. We conducted a quasi-natural experiment in 2017 in five Chinese provinces (districts), based on the establishment of green finance reform and innovation pilot zones. The research samples were China’s A-share heavy pollution-industry-listed companies from 2013 to 2020, and the difference in differences model was used to examine the relationship between green finance and social responsibility fulfilment of highly polluting firms. The mediating and moderating effects of financial constraints and media monitoring were also discussed. The findings indicate that the advancement of green finance significantly improves the level of social responsibility fulfilment of highly polluting firms, particularly in the area of environmental responsibility. Furthermore, strengthened financing constraints partially mediate the aforementioned relationship, and media monitoring positively moderates the facilitation effect of green finance development on highly polluting firms’ social responsibility fulfilment. Our study demonstrates that a higher degree of financing constraints is an important channel for establishing a green finance reform and innovation pilot zone to force enterprises to fulfilment their social responsibility, and provides theoretical support for governments and enterprises to better understand the policy effects.

Most rules and regulations for protecting the environment and reducing greenhouse gas emissions target large enterprises. Although small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have major shares in most Asian economies, they remain outside the purview of most environmental rules and regulations. The primary purpose of this study is to assess the association between SMEs’ activities and carbon emissions in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries from 2010 to 2020. To this end, a fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) model was developed. The results show that SMEs’ activities do not align with environmental protection goals and sustainable development, as the estimation results revealed their significant contributions to CO2 emissions. Other practical implications of this study for carbon-neutral SMEs are introducing green finance policies, revisiting the environmental and carbon reduction rules and regulations that cover SMEs, and changing banks’ lending mechanisms based on SMEs’ green economic performance.

Under the new development pattern, green low-carbon and digital economy become two mainstream development directions in China. Against the background ‘dual carbon’ strategies, based on the data of China between 2010 and 2018 at the city level, The paper adopts dynamic spatial Durbin models to investigate the causal links causal between digital economy and carbon intensity by constructing different spatial weight matrices, and explore the influence of human capital with threshold model. Results show that：(1) Urban digital economy and carbon intensity show significant positive spatial correlation characteristics. The carbon reduction of digital economy has obvious spatial spillover effect under different spatial weight matrices. (2) Industrial structure upgrading, technological innovation and resource allocation optimization are effective channels through which digital economy contributes to carbon emission reduction. (3) A double-threshold effect of human capital is evident in the carbon reduction of digital economy. The findings offer new perspectives and empirical evidence for understanding the causality relation between the digital economy and carbon emission, and those conclusions have important policy implications for how to promote the digital economy development and thus achieve the ‘double carbon goal’.

There are differences in economic level, population size, and technical level in different stages. At the same time, as a coal-dependent country, other regions have foreign dependence on coal. Then the primary factors and influence degrees of CO2 emissions in different stages and areas with different coal dependents will be various. This paper adds urbanization rate, industrial structure, and energy consumption structure to the traditional STIRPAT model. Based on the expanded STIRPAT model, the panel data of 30 regions in China from 2005 to 2019 are used to analyze the different stages and areas with foreign coal dependence. The main influencing factors and degree of influence of CO2 emissions. Regression finds that population size, energy consumption, and industrial structure will increase regional carbon dioxide emissions. There is an “inverted U-shaped” curve relationship between economic development, technological level, and carbon dioxide emissions. The improvement of the urbanization rate can reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Carbon dioxide emissions. An “inverted U-shaped” curve relationship between per capita GDP and CO2 emissions in three research periods from 2005 to 2010, 2011 to 2015, and 2016 to 2019. At the same time, the inhibition effect of the urbanization rate is constantly strengthened, and the promotion effect of the coal consumption ratio is decreasing year by year. The influence of population size, technical level, and industrial structure on carbon dioxide emissions in the whole country and areas with different coal dependents varies with the study period. To provide a theoretical basis for local conditions and regional management in the future direction of energy-saving and carbon reduction.

Corporate environmental protection investment (EPI) is one of the ways to accelerate green development. This paper develops a theoretical model of EPI focusing on three factors: the government, the public, and the enterprises. It uses data from A-share listed Chinese companies from 2008 to 2014 to analyse the effects of the government environmental policy and public participation on the corporate EPI. Results of this research show that both the environmental regulations issued by the government and the demands put forward by public opinion encourage enterprises to increase investment in environmental protection. Moreover, the government’s green policy efforts and public participation result in synergy in governance. Relevant regulations issued by the government improve the efficiency of actual public participation. However, redundant government intervention is not conducive to increasing corporate investment in environmental protection. According to this research, market-oriented reforms can boost the positive impact of government and public efforts on corporate EPI. In order to improve environmental governance and achieve green development, it is necessary to deepen market-oriented reforms and build a coordinated, complementary, and incentive-compatible governance system that deals with issues, demands, rights, and responsibilities of the government, the public, and enterprises.

Tackling environmental pollution and climate change is a global challenge. Therefore, sustainability has become a hugely relevant topic in recent years. In their decision making, investors increasingly consider the non-financial performance of companies such as their social and environmental impact. However, the business research community has not yet reached a consensus regarding the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate financial performance. This research contributes to the discussion on this relationship. It does so by assessing the impact of the individual dimensions of the environmental, social and governance (ESG) score on the corporate financial performance of renewable energy firms from a quantitative and qualitative perspective. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) reveals complex and equifinal configurations that lead companies to record high and low levels of Tobin’s Q. The results for a sample of 96 energy companies from the Eikon database do not provide strong enough evidence to affirm that the individual dimensions of the ESG score have a decisive effect on the corporate financial performance of renewable energy firms.

Lack of economic growth and a high unemployment rate imply poverty and inequality. Economic freedom is considered a relevant explanatory factor for growth, employment and the distribution of income. The present research work addresses how policy makers should take into account economic freedom aspects to effectively enhance a country’s economic growth and lower its unemployment rate. This study analyses the effect of four components of economic freedom (business freedom, labour freedom, government integrity, tax burden) on the mean GDP growth of the last 5 years, and also on unemployment. A cross-national analysis, based on data from the 23 Eurozone3 (Eurozone and part of its enlargement) Member Countries, examines the causal configurations of GDP and unemployment by a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. The results suggest that the combination of high levels of business freedom, labour freedom and government integrity triggers high levels of economic growth and lowers the unemployment rate.

The study explores the dynamic effects of renewable energy investment (green financing), green technology, and trade openness on consumption-based (trade-adjusted) carbon emissions in BRICS economies from 2000 to 2020. The study employs the cross-section autoregressive distributed lag method for empirical estimation to address slope heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependency issues in panel data. The findings exhibit that green financing and sustainable technologies mitigate consumption-based carbon emissions in the long-run, while trade openness contributes to emissions in BRICS countries. The short-run outcomes are compatible with long-run; however, the magnitude of long-run estimates is larger than the short-run. Moreover, the error correction term reveals a significant negative coefficient value, endorsing the conversion towards steady-state equilibrium with a 37% yearly adjustment rate in case of any deviation from equilibrium. The robustness of results is confirmed through augmented mean group and common correlated effect mean group. These findings imply that BRICS countries should encourage financing in renewable energy projects and allocate R&D investment to promote the adaptation of sustainable technologies. In addition, sustainable and green trade policies would help to curb trade-adjusted pollution.

In light of a scarcity of research on the spatial effects of urbanization on poverty reduction, this study uses panel data on 30 provinces in China from 2009 to 2019 to construct a system of indices to assess poverty that spans the four dimensions of the economy, education, health, and living. We use the spatial autocorrelation test and the spatial Durbin model (SDM) to analyze the spatial effects of urbanization on poverty reduction in these different dimensions. The main conclusions are as follows: (a) China’s urbanization has the characteristics of spatial aggregation and a spatial spillover effect. (b) Different dimensions of poverty had the attributes of spatial agglomeration, and Moran’s index of a reduction in economic poverty was the highest. Under the SDM, the different dimensions of poverty also showed a significant positive spatial correlation. (c) Urbanization has a significant effect on poverty reduction along the dimensions of the economy, education, and living, but has little effect on reducing health poverty. It has a spatial spillover effect on poverty reduction in economic and living contexts. (d) There were spatial differences in the effect of urbanization on relieving economic and living-related poverty.