• Energy Research

The COVID-19 crisis seems to have disproportionately impacted women’s financial resilience. In fact, women’s economic involvement in the financial sector remains unequal. This study compares the impact of digital financial inclusion on women’s economic empowerment before and after the COVID-19 epidemic in Saudi Arabia. Using data collected from the Global Financial Inclusion Database for 2017 and 2021 and ordered probit models, the paper examines the relationship between economic women’s empowerment and digital financial inclusion. Findings indicate that using digital financial services has become more crucial since the pandemic. The results demonstrate that women now play a more significant economic role in decision-making than they did before the epidemic because they have access to a variety of digital financial services that could affect their choices and decisions. The findings are consistent with a number of previous studies, which found that financial digitization is a significant factor in women’s economic empowerment. The distinctiveness of this study is that it provides a recent assessment of Saudi women’s present financial circumstances and assesses current Saudi government initiatives to enhance women’s economic empowerment and leadership capabilities. The research conclusions provide insights for regulators and implications for future research in promoting digital financial inclusion and ensuring Saudi women’s economic empowerment.

The authors would like to make the following corrections about the published paper [...]

The rapid pace of economic development experienced by the BRICS countries is accompanied by increased carbon (CO2) emissions resulting from the excessive use of energy and natural resources. However, the emergence of recent technologies has led to the offering of efficient production methods with improved financing channels. This study analyzes the role of financial technologies, digitalization, natural resources, energy transition, and energy innovations on CO2 emissions. It also tests the moderating effect of human capital in BRICS countries from 1995 to 2021. Initially, Augmented Mean Group (AMG) estimation approach is applied to conduct empirical analysis. Due to asymmetric data distribution and non-linear relationships among variables, the Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR) approach is also applied to estimate the effect of the variables across different quantiles of CO2 emission. The findings indicate that digitalization, financial technologies, energy transition, energy innovations, and natural resources reduce CO2 emission, whereas human capital increases it. However, the moderating effect of human capital on the association between digitalization, energy transition, and CO2 emission is significant and positive, indicating that human capital strengthens the negative impact of these factors on environmental degradation. Human capital does not significantly moderate the relationship of natural resources, financial technologies, and renewable energy innovations with CO2 emissions.

The spreading COVID-19 outbreak has wreaked havoc on the world's financial system that raises an urgent need for the re-evaluation of the gold as safe haven for their money because of the unprecedented challenges faced by markets during this period. Therefore, the current study investigates whether different asset class volatility indices affect desirability of gold as a safe-haven commodity during COVID-19 pandemic. Long run and the short run relationship of gold prices with gold price volatility, oil price volatility, silver price volatility and COVID-19 (measured by the number of deaths due to COVID) has been analyzed in the current study by applying ARDL Bound testing cointegration and non linear ARDL approach on daily time series data ranging from January 2020 to Dec 2021. Findings of the study suggest that in the long run, oil price volatility and gold price volatility positively affect the gold prices, whereas the effect of silver price volatility on gold prices is negative in the long run. However in the short run, all the three indices negatively impact the gold prices. In contrast, the impact of COVID-19 is positive both in the short run and in the long run that proves the validity of gold as safe haven asset in the time of the deadly pandemic. The findings of this study have significant implications and offer investors with some indications to hedge their investments by considering the gold's ability of safe haven during this era of pandemic.

This paper investigates the non-linear effects produced by the main determinants of the sovereign ratings issued by Moody’s agency. Using a sample of 29 countries observed over the 2000–2019 period, we identify the factors leading a country to be classified, respectively, in the speculative, moderately speculative, and highly speculative grades. The fixed effect logit estimates reveal that the effects produced by the independent variables on the ratings are largely different from one class of assets to another. The second and main contribution of this study is that it highlights the non-linear effects produced by macroeconomic variables on the probability of downgrading a country from the investment to the speculative grade and from the moderately speculative to the highly speculative grade. Panel threshold regression (PTR) results reveal that control of corruption, external debt, government effectiveness, and domestic credits are the main variables producing such non-linear effects.

The importance of energy security is emphasized in Goal 7 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda to guarantee that everyone has affordable, dependable, and contemporary energy access. In addition to transforming human life, whole economies, and even the planet, sustainable energy offers a chance for a better future. The absence of energy security impacts serious health problems, education, and household difficulties. Research on energy security has emphasized various angles worldwide. However, investigations of the impact of energy security on women’s empowerment are still scant. This study thus investigates the relationship between energy security and women’s empowerment (WE) in 167 countries from 2002 to 2021, as well as the influence of urbanization development levels on this nexus. Moreover, this study explores the variation in women’s empowerment between geographical regions by referencing the MENA, OECD, and SAARC countries. A two-step system GMM was used to achieve the objectives of this research. The findings show first that renewable energy availability has a significant effect on WE worldwide. Secondly, in terms of energy security, the variables total availability of natural resource rents and renewable energy both have a positive impact on women’s empowerment in the MENA, while in the OECD and SAARC countries, they have an indirect link with WE. Third, the integrating effect of total natural resource rents with urbanization significantly affects WE in all five models. Fourth, we used access to electricity to represent resource affordability. Unexpectedly, the results show its negative and significant association with WE. Fifth, in terms of energy security, both energy availability and affordability favor WE in OECD countries. Finally, the coefficient of integration of access to electricity and urbanization shows a positive and significant association with WE in the OECD, MENA, and SAARC regions. However, it is noteworthy to mention that access to electricity alone does not influence WE worldwide. Additionally, a series of tests confirm the robustness of the results. This research provides insight into the development and implications of energy security-related women’s empowerment policies.

This paper examines the effect of environmental change on inclusive finance in African countries during the period 1996–2020. It also investigates the moderating role of government quality on the association between environmental change and inclusive finance. We collected five-year average data from various sources such as the World Development Indicators, the World Governance Indicators, and the International Monetary Fund. Government quality is measured by six dimensions: political stability, voice and accountability, government effectiveness, regulation quality, the rule of law, and corruption control. Environmental change is measured by CO2 emissions. Inclusive finance is measured by the financial development index through depth, access, and efficiency ratios. These variables represent the most used in prior studies as they are published by international organizations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which represent a reputable source of timely information related to the business environment in which business executives operate in several countries. The results show a significant impact of environmental change on inclusive finance. Including economic governance induces a significant and positive effect on financial inclusion in all instances. Our results also show that the coefficients of the interaction between environmental change and governance dimensions are positive and significant. The moderator role of governance is improved when taking into account political, institutional, and economic governance. Our findings offer more motivation for regulators and governments to develop environmental policies that integrate inclusive finance to meet sustainable development goals. Our results are important as they can help regulators, investors, and policymakers to assess and better understand the potential moderation role of governance quality in the relationship between inclusive finance and environmental change.