- Islamabad, Islamabad, Pakistan
Najaf Iqbal
University of the Punjab, Institute of Business Administrartion, Faculty Member
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Owing to the growing importance of socially responsible investments in the wake of climate change mitigation goals, we estimate the asymmetric time- and frequency-spillovers between global sustainable investments. Additionally, we examine... more
Owing to the growing importance of socially responsible investments in the wake of climate change mitigation goals, we estimate the asymmetric time- and frequency-spillovers between global sustainable investments. Additionally, we examine the influence of global risk factors such as US and UK economic policy uncertainties, stock market volatility, US treasury market volatility and infectious diseases related market volatility on the short- and long-run connectedness in these investments. To this end, we use daily returns and volatilities of 14 country-level Dow Jones Sustainability indices from January 2005 to March 2021. By employing the asymmetric versions of Diebold & Yilmaz (2012, 2014) and Barunik & Krehlik (2018) time-frequency connectedness, our study addresses both good and bad contagion among sustainable investments is unexplored in the recent literature. The results reveal significant time-frequency asymmetries in return spillovers across different regions in the short- and long-run. Germany, France, Netherlands, and the UK are the primary transmitters of returns and volatility shocks. We find more intra-regional connectedness among the Asian countries as opposed to inter-regional connectedness. Negative returns propagate more intensely than positive ones, and this contagion is considerably boosted during crises, including the COVID19. The VIX and COVID19 remain influential for financial contagion in the long run. The impact of MOVE is positive in the short-run while negative in the long-run, which shows an overreaction of connectedness to the US treasury market volatility in the short-run. Economic policy uncertainties in the US and the UK increase spillovers more intensely in the short-run. These results are robust to using volatility spillovers, the choice of rolling window and various forecast horizons. Our findings are distinctly important for socially responsible investors as we point out international portfolio diversification opportunities among sustainable investments. Understanding the dynamics of connectedness in sustainable investments can potentially boost financing in this market through portfolio choices and contribute to the climate change mitigation agenda of United Nations.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in sustainable development not only for their significant contribution to China's economy but also for their large share of total discharged pollutants. Despite the... more
Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in sustainable development not only for their significant contribution to China's economy but also for their large share of total discharged pollutants. Despite the widely acknowledged importance and benefits of environmental management accounting (EMA), the level of adoption and implementation of EMA practice is still weak within SMEs in many countries, especially in China. The current systematic review aims to identify the barriers affecting the Chinese SMEs for adopting EMA practices along with the critical success factors required for adopting EMA practices by SMEs and their top management for ensuring sustainable corporate environmental performance in China. The study is carried out following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. In total, 73 articles were found to be eligible to be included in the systematic review, which was published on EMA in small- an...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Owing to the growing importance of socially responsible investments in the wake of climate change mitigation goals, we estimate the asymmetric time- and frequency-spillovers between global sustainable investments. Additionally, we examine... more
Owing to the growing importance of socially responsible investments in the wake of climate change mitigation goals, we estimate the asymmetric time- and frequency-spillovers between global sustainable investments. Additionally, we examine the influence of global risk factors such as US and UK economic policy uncertainties, stock market volatility, US treasury market volatility and infectious diseases related market volatility on the short- and long-run connectedness in these investments. To this end, we use daily returns and volatilities of 14 country-level Dow Jones Sustainability indices from January 2005 to March 2021. By employing the asymmetric versions of Diebold & Yilmaz (2012, 2014) and Barunik & Krehlik (2018) time-frequency connectedness, our study addresses both good and bad contagion among sustainable investments is unexplored in the recent literature. The results reveal significant time-frequency asymmetries in return spillovers across different regions in the short- and long-run. Germany, France, Netherlands, and the UK are the primary transmitters of returns and volatility shocks. We find more intra-regional connectedness among the Asian countries as opposed to inter-regional connectedness. Negative returns propagate more intensely than positive ones, and this contagion is considerably boosted during crises, including the COVID19. The VIX and COVID19 remain influential for financial contagion in the long run. The impact of MOVE is positive in the short-run while negative in the long-run, which shows an overreaction of connectedness to the US treasury market volatility in the short-run. Economic policy uncertainties in the US and the UK increase spillovers more intensely in the short-run. These results are robust to using volatility spillovers, the choice of rolling window and various forecast horizons. Our findings are distinctly important for socially responsible investors as we point out international portfolio diversification opportunities among sustainable investments. Understanding the dynamics of connectedness in sustainable investments can potentially boost financing in this market through portfolio choices and contribute to the climate change mitigation agenda of United Nations.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
As regional economic integration and climate change are among the most important phenomena influencing economic and social sustainability in the modern world, a huge volume of research is directed towards these topics nowadays. The aim of... more
As regional economic integration and climate change are among the most important phenomena influencing economic and social sustainability in the modern world, a huge volume of research is directed towards these topics nowadays. The aim of this study is to explore the impact of financial globalization and human capital on environmental degradation in One Belt One Road (OBOR) countries in a cultural context that is largely under-explored in spite of being immensely crucial for fulfilling the United Nations' agenda on climate change mitigation. Owing to the presence of vast cultural differences, we check if the national scores on "Power Distance Index" and "Uncertainty Avoidance" in these countries matter for the environment. To this end, we use the latest and annual data set comprising 31 OBOR countries from 1996 to 2018, and employ panel econometric techniques that effectively deal with the threat of endogeneity. Results show that human capital improves environment while financial globalization deteriorates it. Interestingly, high power distance and uncertainty avoidance can reverse the positive impact of human capital. Similarly, financial globalization is favorable for environment in countries with low power distance and uncertainty avoidance. The findings are robust to the use of alternative specifications. Theoretical underpinnings and implications are discussed arising from the interesting reversal of traditional impacts in different cultural scenarios. Specifically, we recommend a culture of entrepreneurship, innovation, and inclusivity, promoted through increased tolerance towards risk-taking and participative decision-making to reap the benefits of human capital and globalization in improving the environment. Our results have important implications for climate change mitigation endeavors in OBOR countries and understanding the cultural context in this regard. Additionally, our study opens a vast avenue for the related research work in the future.
Research Interests:
The cryptocurrency markets are perceived as being dominated by Bitcoin leading the overall system dynamics. Although the previous empirical evidence points towards strong connections among selected cryptocurrencies or, from the other... more
The cryptocurrency markets are perceived as being dominated by Bitcoin leading the overall system dynamics. Although the previous empirical evidence points towards strong connections among selected cryptocurrencies or, from the other side, weak dependence between Bitcoin and traditional financial assets, a focused study on the dynamics of return and volatility connectedness among a wider range of cryptocurrencies is lacking, and more so, one directed towards the very first actual critical period of the global economy coinciding with relevant crypto-markets. Using data for the 10 most capitalized cryptocurrencies between 1st October 2017 and 5th January 2021, we examine how cryptocurrencies interact and whether they have a clear leader, with a special focus on differences with respect to investment horizons and how the relationship structure evolves in time. We uncover a structural change in the connectedness evolving in 2020 as the market restructures in reaction to the unprecedented monetary injections as a counter to the COVID-19-induced economic standstill. The structural change is shown not only for cryptocurrencies considered separately but also when we jointly examine them with traditional assets. © 2022 Elsevier B.V.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
In this paper, we examine extreme spillovers among the realized volatility of various energy, metals, and agricultural commodities over the period from September 23, 2008, to June 1, 2020. Using high-frequency (5-min) price data on... more
In this paper, we examine extreme spillovers among the realized volatility of various energy, metals, and agricultural commodities over the period from September 23, 2008, to June 1, 2020. Using high-frequency (5-min) price data on commodity futures, we compute daily realized volatility and then apply quantile-based connectedness measures. The results show that the connectedness measures estimated at the lower and upper quantiles are much higher than those estimated at the median, implying that realized volatility shocks circulate more intensely during extreme events relative to normal periods, which endangers the stability of the system of volatility connectedness under extreme events such as the COVID19 outbreak. There is evidence of a strong asymmetry between the behaviour of volatility spillovers in lower and upper quantiles, given that the connectedness measures estimated at the upper quantile are the highest. The main results are robust to rolling window size and other alternative choices. Our analyses matter to investors and policy makers who are concerned with the stability of commodity markets.
Research Interests:
PurposeThis study attempts to document the impact of financial leverage on corporate innovation in the Chinese nonfinancial public firms listed on Shenzhen and Shanghai stock exchanges.Design/methodology/approachThe firm-level data are... more
PurposeThis study attempts to document the impact of financial leverage on corporate innovation in the Chinese nonfinancial public firms listed on Shenzhen and Shanghai stock exchanges.Design/methodology/approachThe firm-level data are collected from CSMAR database for ten years, ranging from 2007 to 2016. The authors have employed the panel fixed effects model and further system GMM approach for analysis. The sample is segregated on the basis of state (SOE) and nonstate ownership (NSOE) to check for the diverse effects. In total, three different proxies of financial leverage are used to unearth the varying impact of short-time and long-term leverage separately. Further, corporate innovation is divided into input innovation (R&D/Sales and R&D/Assets) and output innovation (patents and inventions).FindingsThe results suggest that financial leverage is detrimental to the input innovation while conducive for the output innovation when measured by the number of patents. Contrarily, leve...
Research Interests:
The world needs to get out of the COVID-19 pandemic smoothly through a thorough socio-economic recovery. The first and the foremost step towards this process is the recovery of the people affected medically (COVID-19 patients). This is... more
The world needs to get out of the COVID-19 pandemic smoothly through a thorough socio-economic recovery. The first and the foremost step towards this process is the recovery of the people affected medically (COVID-19 patients). This is probably the first empirical study discussing the recovery from COVID-19 disease, and specifically aiming at exploring the environmental impact on COVID-19 recovered patients. The sample data is taken during the lockdown period in Wuhan from 23rd January 2020 to 8th April 2020. The novel econometric technique of Quantile-on-Quantile regression, recently proposed by Shin and Zhu (2016), is employed to capture the asymmetric association between environmental factors (TEMP, HUM, PM2.5, PM10, CO, SO2, NO2, and O3) and number of recovered patients from COVID-19 disease. We observe the heterogeneity among the variables across different quantiles of both independent and dependent variables. The findings suggest that TEMP, PM2.5, PM10, CO, NO2, and O3 are neg...
Research Interests:
This study investigates the co-movement nexus between COVID-19 and insurance industry returns for emerging and developed markets using a wavelet-based framework. Analysis on the daily observations from 22nd January 2020 to 14th September... more
This study investigates the co-movement nexus between COVID-19 and insurance industry returns for emerging and developed markets using a wavelet-based framework. Analysis on the daily observations from 22nd January 2020 to 14th September 2020 reveals that insurance returns (INS) responded strongly and negatively, right after the onset of the global COVID-19 outbreak, but asymmetrically later. Additionally, the devastation brought to INS is comparatively more severe but short-lived for emerging markets. The wavelet-based Granger causality and correlation confirm the robustness of our results. These findings are important for policymakers and investors in the insurance industry in the aftermath of COVID-19.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Achieving carbon neutrality is of great importance to many developed and developing countries around the globe. Global warming is one of the leading issues caused by human activities. To cope with environmental challenges, and to achieve... more
Achieving carbon neutrality is of great importance to many developed and developing countries around the globe. Global warming is one of the leading issues caused by human activities. To cope with environmental challenges, and to achieve carbon neutrality, fiscal decentralization and eco-innovation are promising strategies that can also enable countries and local governments to pursue visible economic growth. This study investigates the role of export diversification, environment-related technological innovation, and fiscal decentralization in effectively achieving carbon neutrality target for 37 OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) economies from 1970 to 2019. For empirical analysis, it uses second-generation tests that deal with heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence issues. To this end, this study employs updated cointegration techniques. The augmented mean group (AMG) approach is used to examine the long-run dynamic equilibrium among the variables of interest. The findings indicate that export diversification and fiscal decentralization followed by GDP growth affect carbon dioxide emission positively. While renewable energy consumption and environment-related technological innovation assure environmental improvement. Additionally, short-run causal and unidirectional links are found running from fiscal decentralization, export diversification, and environment-related technological innovation to carbon emissions. Our findings suggest that OECD partner countries need to be careful while devising fiscal decentralization and export diversification policies. They should increase the share of renewable energy, and expand environment-related technological innovation. Such strategic efforts would direct the OECD countries to meet the climate change mitigation agenda of sustainable development goals.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is infecting the human population, killing people, and destroying livelihoods. This research sought to explore the associations of daily average temperature (AT) and air quality (PM 2.5) with the daily... more
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is infecting the human population, killing people, and destroying livelihoods. This research sought to explore the associations of daily average temperature (AT) and air quality (PM 2.5) with the daily new cases of COVID-19 in the top four regions of Spain (Castilla y Leon, Castilla-La Mancha, Catalonia, and Madrid). We apply Pearson correlation, Spearman correlation, Kendall’s rank correlation, and panel regressions to quantify the overall co-movement between temperature, air quality, and daily cases of COVID-19 from February to 17th April 2020. Overall empirical results show that temperature and air quality exert pressure to increase new COVID-19 infections. Our findings are contrary to the earlier studies, which show a significant impact of temperature in reducing the COVID-19 spread. The conclusions of this work can serve as an input to mitigate the rapid spread of COVID-19 in Spain and reform policies accordingly.