Suchergebnisse

Abstract
The literature on the association between financial development and environment quality covers many dimensions. Nonetheless, the role of governance and institutional quality in this relationship has been highlighted moderately. Consequently, this research aims at extending the existing literature on the impact of financial development on CO2 emission, by integrating the role of institutional quality in the financial development-carbon emission nexus. By adopting a panel dataset of 20 MENA countries between 2002 and 2018 and using dynamic GMM models, the study examines firstly the impact of institutional quality on carbon emissions and revealed the important role of government effectiveness and quality of regulation in preserving environment quality. Furthermore, the paper tests how the combination of financial development and institutional quality can change the dynamic of their separate control ability on pollution. The results show indeed that their impact on CO2 emissions is amplified and changes from non-Granger cause type to Granger cause type.

AbstractFinancing for Development was addressed by the international community since more than 25 years, when the Monterrey Consensus of the International Conference on Financing for Development (Monterrey, Mexico, March 2002) urged mobilising and increasing the effective use of financial resources to fulfil the internationally agreed Millennium Development Goals. In 2015, a new Development Agenda was designed and was based on the Development Finance. Consequently, the efficient exploitation of traditional and innovative finance resources in economic, social and human development has become a global top priority. This study analyses the impact of 7 resources of financial flows on 6 socio-economic variables in a sample of 19 MENA countries over the period 1991–2015 to test the efficient exploitation of these resources in development. The results show that government spending and official development assistance are the most important factor in boosting development in the MENA region. International trade plays a limited role in financing development, whereas foreign direct investment has the least effect on MENA development.

Abstract
This research detects the existence of monetary policy transmission mechanisms in Lebanon through which the actions of the central bank propagate. By adopting co-integration analysis and VECM frameworks, and by exploiting monthly data between January 1994 and December 2016, the research revealed the existence of a long-run interest rate channel, affecting both resident private sector deposits and credit to the private sector. Another short-run capital channel was revealed, affecting total credit provided by the banking sector. Additionally, the empirical results show that (1) deposit inflows are not attracted by high interest rates, but stimulated by confidence provided by large foreign currency reserves held by the central banks; (2) non-residents deposit inflows could represent a substitute for local credit; (3) banks pass-through any increase in funding cost to borrowers; and (4) an increase in external interest rates may trigger deposit outflows.

Abstract
The crucial role of financial systems in sustainable development has become the center of global and national interest and development strategies, and more developed and stable financial systems are the cornerstone for development finance and achieving the sustainable development goals. This research aims to examine the impact of financial development and stability on human development firstly in a sample of 185 countries worldwide, and secondly in a sample of 21 MENA countries, over the period 1990–2019. This study adopts the Panel Data Econometrics (Fixed Effects and Random Effects Methods) and proxy for human development by exploiting the UNDP's Human Development Index and its three subindices (Education, Income, and Life expectancy), while it adopts broad money, credit to the domestic private sector, and banking sector deposits (all as a percentage of GDP) to proxy for financial development. Moreover, it represents financial stability by the banking sector Z-score and a dummy variable representing crises. The empirical results reveal the prevailing role of development and stability in the financial systems on human development and its three subcomponents, regardless of the country's economic development level.

Abstract
The Middle East North Africa (MENA) region is witnessing a wave of bank consolidations, with many mega-mergers taking place in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. These will result in creating large banks, reducing the number of market players and increasing market concentration; which is already high. A further increase in concentration may raise concerns about the resulting dominance of large banks and the consequences on their pricing behaviour. The interrelationships between market structure and pricing behaviour is summarised by the popular model of industrial economics called the structure–conduct–performance (SCP) model. Consequently, we test the prevalence of this model in a sample of 15 MENA banking sectors to detect the possible existence of an impact running particularly from the structure of banking markets to the pricing behaviour (power) of banks in order to predict a possible emergence of oligopolistic behaviour following bank consolidations. Using a two-stage least squares model, we found a positive and significant impact of market concentration on bank pricing, suggesting that an further increase in MENA banking markets' concentration may boost banks pricing power and persuade them to increase their returns at the expense of their customers.