Beyond the environmental Kuznets Curve in E7 economies: Accounting for the combined impacts of institutional quality and renewables

As the argument widens on the need to cut down on global carbon emissions, this study addresses environmental degradation using a combination of second-generation empirical methodologies including, quantile regression (QR), augmented mean group (AMG), fully modified ordinal least square (FMOLS), and dynamic ordinal least square (DOLS) to examine the impacts of natural resource rents alongside disaggregated energy consumption on the environmental quality of the G7 economies within the framework of the stochastic impact by regression on population, affluence, and technology (STIRPAT) model. The empirical findings reveal that the total natural resources rent indicates a positive significant relationship with pollution in all the quantiles except Q 0.05. Additionally, the findings for renewable energy consumption are adverse and significant throughout the assessed quantiles while fossil fuel energy consumption is reported to have a positive and significant effect on carbon dioxide emissions, thus, increasing environmental degradation experienced in the G7 economies. The extended findings from the Granger causality analysis also show that income levels combined with fossil fuel use have a strong effect on environmental degradation, while the total natural resources rent granger causes clean energy consumption within the G7 countries. This finding supports the assertions that natural resource revenue is mostly channeled into further productivity avenues which consequently lead to further environmental degradation. As such, while maintaining targeted revenue agenda, we strongly recommend that productivity gains from natural resource rents within the G7 economies should be harnessed for investment in clean energy for a more sustainable environment.

Accounting for the combined impacts of natural resources rent, income level, and energy consumption on environmental quality of G7 economies: a panel quantile regression approach.

More than any other nations, the crude oil-exporting countries and especially the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are likely to experience a more difficult energy-transitioning regime because of the economies' high dependence on crude oil revenue. By using the Pooled Mean Group (PMG) Autoregressive Distributed Lag Models (ARDL) approach, this study examines the impact of the energy transition albeit from conventional to clean energy on carbon emissions in 11 members of the OPEC. While engaging the aforementioned objective, the study further examined the validity of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis amidst urbanization drive among the countries. The result from the long-run estimates shows that fossil fuel utilization exerts a positively significant on environmental degradation in the selected countries, while the observed negative impact of renewable energy utilization and urbanization on carbon dioxide emission (CO2) was insignificant in both the short and long run. The implication is that the current energy transition policy of the OPEC states is not sufficient at driving the states' environmental sustainability agenda. In addition, the EKC was not valid in the panel of the OPEC countries for the period of study, rather a U-shaped relation is established between income level and environmental degradation. Thus, this further posits that there is a setback in the push for environmental quality especially when there is an improvement in economic well-being through income growth in the OPEC states. Moreover, findings from the panel causality test show that there is no causality running from both fossil fuel and renewable energy consumption to the income level among the countries. On the contrary, a uni-directional causality was obtained from income level to renewable energy consumption, while urbanization strongly Granger causes fossil fuel use and CO2 emissions among the countries. As such, it is concluded that energy conservation policies can be implemented to reduce extreme dependence on fossil fuel use with little or no detrimental consequences, thus positioning the countries for economic prosperity in a sustainable environment.

Environmental aspect of energy transition and urbanization in the OPEC member states

Re-examining the roles of economic globalization and natural resources consequences on environmental degradation in E7 economies: Are human capital and urbanization essential components?

Retrospecting on resource abundance in leading oil-producing African countries: how valid is the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in a sectoral composition framework?

The impacts of public expenditures on economic growth have been revisited in this paper with respect to capital expenditure, recurrent expenditure and the government fiscal expansion in line with support for the budgetary allocations to various sectors in the context of the Nigerian economy. Pesaran’s ARDL approach has been applied to carry out the impact analysis using annual time-series data from 1981 to 2017. Empirical findings support the existence of a level relationship between public spending indicators and economic growth in Nigeria. Incisively, recurrent expenditures of government were found to be significantly impacting on economic growth in a negative way while the positive impacts of public capital expenditures were not significant to economic growth over the period of the study. Further results from the Granger Causality Test reveal that fiscal expansion of the government that is hinged on debt financing is strongly granger causing public expenditures and domestic investment with the latter also Granger causing real growth in the economy. We, therefore, provide some important policy recommendations following the results of the empirical analysis.

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An empirical retrospect of the impacts of government expenditures on economic growth: new evidence from the Nigerian economy

This study aims to analyze the effect of government spending on healthcare on health outcomes with cross-national comparison. We run crosssectional regressions to estimate the strength of association between child and infant mortality rate and public health expenditures in worldwide sample. We find statistically significant and robust results by various specifications. We found government health spending as a share of GDP is negatively associated with lower level of under-5 mortality by elasticities of from -0.17 to -0.22. The elasticity is -0.20 for infant mortality. When government spending as a share total health expenditures is used as estimator, elasticities are -0.33 for under-5 mortality and -0.23 and -.0.32 for infant mortality. We also found significant and negative coefficient a number of socio-political determinants such as the law and order, education level, population as well as income level as a main determinant. Compared to previous studies, we found the income level to be slightly less significant and the public health spending to be slightly more significant empirically.

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Public spending on health care and health outcomes: cross- country comparison

Tax compliance behavior of taxpayers is an important issue for tax administration and government. The main objective of this research is to determine the relationships between social norms and tax compliance and to evaluate whether tax administration’s efficiency moderates the relationship between social norms and tax compliance in Turkey case. This study was conducted on taxpayers who declare their income to the tax administration. In the questionnaire development stage, pilot test was done on 30 respondents in order to test the clarity of the questions and to identify the average completion time. After the necessary improvements and simplifications were done, the questionnaire was applied. Face-to-face interviews with taxpayers who declare their income to the tax administration were conducted in Aksaray and Izmir cities. As a consequence, 400 respondents were interviewed. Field and office audits of the questionnaires ended with the elimination of 79 questionnaires. Therefore, 321 questionnaires were included in the analyses process. To test our research hypotheses, hierarchical multiple regression analysis was run. This study examined social norms of taxpayer-tax compliance behavior relationship as well as the impact of effectiveness of tax administration on that relationship. According to results, efficiency of tax administration was found to have a significant and positive moderating effect on the relationship between social norms and tax compliance.

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The Relationship between Social Norms and Tax Compliance: The Moderating Role of the Effectiveness of Tax Administration

The impacts of public expenditures on economic growth have been revisited in this paper with respect to capital expenditure, recurrent expenditure and the government fiscal expansion in line with support for the budgetary allocations to various sectors in the context of the Nigerian economy. The Pesaran ARDL approach has been applied to carry out the impact analysis using annual time series data from 1981 to 2017. Empirical findings support the existence of a level relationship between public spending indicators and economic growth in Nigeria. Incisively, recurrent expenditures of government were found to be significantly impacting on economic growth in a negative way while the positive impacts of public capital expenditures were not significant to economic growth over the period of the study. Further results from the granger causality test reveal that fiscal expansion of the government that is hinged on debt financing is strongly granger causing public expenditures and domestic investment with the latter also granger causing real growth in the economy. We, therefore, provide some important policy recommendations following the results of the empirical analysis.

An Empirical Retrospect of the Impacts of Government Expenditures on Economic Growth: New Evidence from the Nigerian Economy

This paper analyzes the importance of social and political contexts and individual value norms in tax morale. It introduces an approach to discuss tax morale with the notions of ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ to capture socio-political context and personal value orientations. It constructs a general framework on tax compliance in socio-political context and analytically and statistically demonstrates the importance of identities and personal norms to explain the level of tax morale. Statistical results of an estimated logistics regression model from the World Value Survey data are generally consistent with hypothetical expectations. Results from the analysis indicate that social capital and political confidence are significant in order to estimate the level of tax morale. Moreover, individual reciprocal tendency, sensitiveness to expectations of others, collectivist orientation, and obedience tendency of authority are important determinants of tax morale.

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Savaş Çevik

Papers

An empirical retrospect of the impacts of government expenditures on economic growth: new evidence from the Nigerian economy

Public spending on health care and health outcomes: cross- country comparison

The Relationship between Social Norms and Tax Compliance: The Moderating Role of the Effectiveness of Tax Administration

An Empirical Retrospect of the Impacts of Government Expenditures on Economic Growth: New Evidence from the Nigerian Economy

Tax Morale in Socio-Political Interactions: Insiders and Outsiders