The Unassuming Economist

From a paper by Ihtisham Hussain, Abdul Saqib, and Hooi Hooi Lean:

“Alleviating environmental damage has become a significant challenge for BRICS countries, where economic progress amidst urbanization and fossil fuel consumption pollutes the environment. In this context, BRICS countries must transition from fossil fuels to green energy to sustain their economic progress and protect the environment. However, economic policy uncertainty may affect their fight against climate change and their actions towards environmental sustainability. Therefore, this study examines the roles of economic policy uncertainty and green energy in the environmental sustainability of BRICS countries. Under the STIRPAT framework, we employ a novel augmented autoregressive distributed lag model. Our results show that green energy has a negative and significant impact on carbon emissions and temperature. Moreover, economic policy uncertainty aggravates carbon emissions and temperature in India and Russia. But it was found to reduce carbon emissions and temperature in Brazil and China. To better address the impacts of policy uncertainty on environmental outcomes, Brazil and China should expand renewable energy investments and stabilize economic policies, while India and Russia could prioritize the transition to cleaner technologies and reduce their reliance on fossil fuels to enhance environmental sustainability.”

From a paper by Hugo Morão:

“This study quantifies the impact of European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) on inflation and key macroeconomic variables in the Euro Area (EA). Using a structural vector autoregression (SVAR) model, the analysis reveals that stricter climate policies significantly affect industrial production, unemployment, and inflation in transportation, utilities, and food sectors. Furthermore, the post-2020 regulatory adjustments in emissions caps and allowances have contributed to recent consumer price increases, an effect amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical tensions. The findings suggest the European Commission underestimated the macroeconomic consequences of EU ETS Phase 4. This highlights the need for a more flexible climate policy approach that balances environmental goals with macroeconomic stability.”

From a paper by Jangho Yang and Christian Schoder:

“This study examines the impact of temperature uncertainty on firm fixed capital growth using a unique dataset that merges extensive firm-level financial data with detailed gridlevel weather data. The analysis reveals a strong negative relationship between temperature uncertainty and fixed capital growth. Furthermore, the impact varies significantly across industries with differing levels of investment irreversibility and among countries with varying income levels. Firms in industries characterized by high investment irreversibility and those operating in higher-income countries experience more pronounced declines in fixed asset growth due to temperature uncertainty.”

From a paper by Peterson K. Ozili:

“Contractionary monetary and fiscal policy jointly reduce CO₂ emissions in the regions of the Americas and Africa. Contractionary monetary and fiscal policy combined with higher renewable energy consumption jointly reduce CO₂ emissions in the regions of the Americas, Asia and Europe. Also, contractionary monetary and fiscal policy combined with higher institutional quality jointly reduce CO₂ emissions in African countries. Higher renewable energy consumption reduces CO₂ emissions in Africa, Asia, Europe and Americas regions while strong institutional quality consistently reduce CO₂ emissions in Europe and the Americas.”

From a paper by Florin Cornel Dumiter, Ștefania Amalia Nicoară, Samuel Nicoară, Cristian Bențe and Luminița Păiușan:

“The oil price influences and tendencies have gained, lately major developments both at the European level and on the international level. Moreover, several interconnections between the energy sector and oil price influences have become the panacea of several important research and studies. In this article, we provide a qualitative and quantitative approach to the interconnections manifested between oil price movements and the developments of the energy sector. The study is focused on Central and Eastern European Countries which have similarities and differences both at the energy sector level and economy level. The econometric techniques used in this study reveal the importance of the causality relationship between oil price movements and the energy sector taking into account the macroeconomic context. The conclusions of this study highlight some important fine-tuning aspects that must be recalibrated in Central and Eastern European Countries to increase the economic outcomes, strengthen the energy sector, and respond properly to the oil price movement trends.”