ICT Innovation, FDI and Economic Growth: Evidence from BRICS

We make a comprehensive investigation of ICT innovation, FDI and economic growth nexus for BRICS countries for the periods between 1990 and 2021 using autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) techniques. We use input-based ICT and non-ICT resources to capture ICT innovations, foreign direct inflows, gross domestic product and quantity of labor for this economic bloc. From our estimation, the following summary can be made. ICT is found to be consistently and significantly contributing to the economic growth rate of BRICS countries. However, with the negative impact of FDI on the growth rate, its interaction with ICT input resources was found to help mitigate the negative impact of FDI on economic growth which by implication suggests that adequate ICT infrastructure complemented with foreign-oriented investment can play a formidable role in increasing the growth process of the economies of BRICS. Also, non-ICT input resources and quantity of labor growth rate were found to be necessary variables worthy of giving appropriate consideration in explaining the growth rate of the economies. The study thus suggests the higher provision of both ICT and non-ICT input resources in the BRICS and a policy to attract able hands from developing countries to turn various resources for economic progress

Technology shocks and the efficiency of equity markets in the developed and emerging economies : a global VAR approach

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT: The GVAR data used in this article can be found on the following link: http://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/people-files/emeritus/mhp1/GVAR/GVAR.html, accessed on 26 January 2023. However, data on technology shocks can be made available upon request from the corresponding author.We tested the connection between technology shocks and the efficiency of equity markets in developed and emerging economies. We augmented the Global Vector Autoregressive (GVAR) database that covers data on 33 developed and emerging markets with the newly constructed data for technology shocks involving two variants, one with 164 countries (GTS-164), and the other, which is more region-specific. covering only Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries (GTS-OECD). Our analysis was then modeled with GVAR methodology. We found that a one standard positive innovation shock to global technology (GTS-164) raises real equity prices in nearly 70% of the markets considered, and this is sustained over the forecast periods. However, the response of real equity prices to a global-specific technology shock (GTS-OECD) is rather different. While this shock resulted in the immediate rise in real equity prices, it is only transient and dissipated after the third quarter of the forecast horizon in about 85% of these markets. By implication, the efficiency of the real equity market was assured for the region-specific technology shock rather than for the more encompassing measurement that takes account of numerous markets, not minding whether these markets are developed or emerging. In sum, technological shocks seem to have greater impacts on the efficiency of developed (including Euro) markets than other markets.https://www.mdpi.com/journal/jrfmEconomicsSDG-08:Decent work and economic growt

Climate change, technology shocks and the US equity real estate investment trusts (REITs)

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT : Publicly available datasets were analyzed in this study. This data can be found here: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/.Given the renewed interest in Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), we are keenly focused on exploring the possible connection between climate change and return volatility of US equity REITs, as well as the role of technology innovation for environmental sustainability in the nexus. While climate change might pose some threat to the REIT business, it is necessary to know the direction in which technological innovation can mitigate this impact. As a way to validate our evidence, we offer some additional analyses with alternative measures of technology shocks and the replacement of technology shocks with global economic expansion, as improvement in global economic activity could offer more investment options for investors to diversify their investment portfolio away from climate-prone assets. For completeness, the analyses are replicated for US mortgage REITs. Overall, we show that climate change heightens the return volatility of US equity REITs and that the former contains some predictive content for the latter. When the role of technology is examined, our results show that technology shock indeed reverses the cheering impact of temperature anomaly on the return volatility of US equity REITs. We show that these results are robust to alternative measures of economic shock and that the results equally hold for mortgage REITs. We further document some important implications of our findings for investors and policymakers alike.https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainabilityam2024EconomicsSDG-03:Good heatlh and well-bein

Technology Shocks and the Efficiency of Equity Markets in the Developed and Emerging Economies: A Global VAR Approach

We tested the connection between technology shocks and the efficiency of equity markets in developed and emerging economies. We augmented the Global Vector Autoregressive (GVAR) database that covers data on 33 developed and emerging markets with the newly constructed data for technology shocks involving two variants, one with 164 countries (GTS-164), and the other, which is more region-specific. covering only Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries (GTS-OECD). Our analysis was then modeled with GVAR methodology. We found that a one standard positive innovation shock to global technology (GTS-164) raises real equity prices in nearly 70% of the markets considered, and this is sustained over the forecast periods. However, the response of real equity prices to a global-specific technology shock (GTS-OECD) is rather different. While this shock resulted in the immediate rise in real equity prices, it is only transient and dissipated after the third quarter of the forecast horizon in about 85% of these markets. By implication, the efficiency of the real equity market was assured for the region-specific technology shock rather than for the more encompassing measurement that takes account of numerous markets, not minding whether these markets are developed or emerging. In sum, technological shocks seem to have greater impacts on the efficiency of developed (including Euro) markets than other markets

COVID-19 and oil market risks: Evidence from new datasets

We evaluate the predictive value of the newly constructed six COVID-19 indices for oil market risks from 31st December, 2019 (when COVID-19 started) to 28th December, 2021. We show that, on average, higher values of the COVID-19 indices appear to have heightened oil market risks albeit with the converse for Vaccine index regardless of the choice of oil price proxy. The predictive value of the indices is sustained over multiple out-of-sample forecasts and we attribute the outcome to the increased uncertainties associated with the pandemic. Therefore, measures aimed at mitigating these uncertainties can help moderate the oil market risks. • Testing the predictive value of the newly constructed COVID-19 measures for the out-of-sample forecasting of oil market risks. • Increased uncertainties associated with the pandemic tend to raise the level of oil market risks. • Measures aimed at mitigating these uncertainties can help moderate the oil market risks