The goal of this study was to examine the interlinkage of renewable energy, technology innovation, human capital, and governance on environment quality by using a panel quantile regression in Asian emerging economies over the period of 1990–2019. The results indicated that higher economic growth, population density, technological innovation in renewable energy, and exploitation of natural resources have significantly raised CO₂ emissions in emerging Asia. Furthermore, larger capital, more use of renewable energy, green technology, and human capital development can improve environmental sustainability in Asia. As for governances, proxied by corruption rates, no evidence indicated that it has resulted in more damage, unlike earlier studies have suggested. The findings indicated that the three channels exposed in the Kuznets hypothesis can serve as a reference for proposals for environmental policies (scale of consumption, energy composition, and choice of technologies). There are opportunities to reduce CO₂ emissions through investments in human development, investing in new technologies to increase efficiency in energy (generation and consumption), increasing working capital (GCF), and migrating to more environmentally friendly energy. The negative link between carbon dioxide emissions and economic growth, increases in population density, and exploitation of natural resources can compromise the achievement of sustainable environmental goals.

This study examines the impact of exchange rate volatility on Indonesia's primary export commodities to the top five export destination countries, namely China, India, Japan, South Korea, and the United States. This study uses a GARCH model to obtain an estimated value of exchange rate volatility, using monthly data covering from 2006 to 2018. The ARDL method helps to measure the effect of exchange rate volatility on exports to destination countries in both the short and the long-term. Aggregate exports are compared employing a linear (ARDL) and a non-linear autoregressive distributed lag model (NARDL). The findings suggest that exchange rate volatility has a significant effect on exports of commodities under code 26 (ores), 38 (chemicals), 40 (rubber), and 47 (pulp paper) to India, Japan, South Korea, and the United States, either in the short or long-run. The exchange rate volatility of exports to China only affects plastics goods (code 39), although many goods experience negative effects due to exchange rate depreciation. In India, exchange rate volatility affects the largest number of export commodities. The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) has a strong long-term effect on exports to Asian countries. Impacts due to exchange rates offer both negative effects and positive effects (expected) in exports at commodity and trade partner case-to-case levels. Both aggregate ARDL and NARDL models suggest that Indonesian exports are negatively affected by exchange rate fluctuations.

This study examines whether income inequality and poverty are determinants of crime rates across 34 provinces in Indonesia. Three indicators of income inequality and four poverty measures are tested to examine whether the dimension and degree of unequal welfare distribution are linked to crime occurrences. We use panel data from 2010 to 2019 with the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) approach. The findings indicate that higher income levels and wider income inequality are associated with higher crime rates. Our first indicator of income inequality, non-food expenditure, has a larger impact on crime rates than our second and third indicators, i.e., the gap in food expenditure and the Gini ratio. Poverty is also positively associated with crime. The wider the poverty gap (a measure of poverty) and the severity index, the higher the deprivation levels among the poor, which lead to more crime. The significant and positive effect of poverty on crime rates, and the positive nexus between crime, income, and inequality suggest that Indonesia will face a higher crime risk as the country becomes increasingly more affluent. In such a scenario, policymakers can leverage education and investment (domestic and foreign) to minimize the crime rate. The government could also strengthen crime prevention programs, crime settlement systems, and policing in Indonesia, and raise the budget for social assistance.

In this study, we investigated the effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) spillovers on firm production and technical efficiency in Indonesia’s manufacturing sector from 2010 to 2015. We scrutinized three different channels of horizontal spillover, namely, demonstration, technology adoption, and competition channels. We also captured the heterogeneous effect of firms by categorizing them based on their technological intensity (low, medium, or high). Using time-varying stochastic production frontier analysis, we found that manufacturing firms in each technological group benefit from FDI, either from productivity improvement or technical efficiency improvement. High-technology firms mainly benefit from FDI due to their high technological absorption capability. Meanwhile, medium-high and medium-low tech firms increase productivity through the demonstration effect and the technology adoption channel, despite underperforming in technical efficiency. Finally, low-tech firms, which primarily employ unskilled workers, suffer from large inefficiency. We found that increased FDI, combined with improvements in technology absorption capacity, can help revitalize the productivity of low-tech firms. FDI, firm size, and access to foreign inputs all support production effects but have no direct positive impact on firms’ technical efficiency. The results of this study suggest that the government should ensure that domestic firms can absorb the technical capability of a foreign presence. Open innovation can help strengthen foreign–domestic linkages to contribute to growth through the transfer of knowledge, skills, and technologies.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) plays a vital role in boosting economic growth and providing more job opportunities. Hence, it is imperative to investigate the factors that can spur FDI inflows in the Southeast Asia region (ASEAN) and its three largest trading partners: China, Japan, and South Korea (ASEAN+3). Besides, whether corruption can boost or decrease FDI inflows, and whether larger environmental degradation triggers FDI inflows have been sparsely explored by previous studies. The panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach is employed to analyze the period from 1995 to 2020. The results show evidence of the grabbing hand hypothesis in ASEAN+3 as decreasing corruption can positively impact FDI inflows in the long run. However, the results support that increasing environmental degradation has spurred FDI in the region, suggesting reformulating investment promotion policies towards more environmentally friendly ones. These findings are important for policymakers to formulate the right policies for boosting FDI. Punishment for those who act in a corrupt manner may act as a deterrent to would-be offenders. Using more renewable energy could help to reduce environmental degradation and boost FDI simultaneously.

We investigate whether a nexus exists between income inequality and criminal activity in Indonesia. Additionally, we examine socioeconomic variables and potential links with criminal actions (i.e., crime rate, murder, rape, physical abuse, robbery, and fraud). We use the generalized method of moments (GMM) approach, employing data for 34 provinces in Indonesia over the period of 2010–2019. The results indicate that income inequality is associated with higher criminal activity. Overall, lower unemployment, larger investment (foreign and domestic), and higher human development (education and health) can help reduce crime in Indonesia. However, higher income can reduce physical abuse and crime rates, but theft and fraud increase with income growth. Rising unemployment increases rape, abuse, robbery, and fraud. Still, unemployment does not affect murder, suggesting that non-economic factors are dominant in explaining murder and violent crimes. Furthermore, income inequality can increase robbery and fraud, although it has no significant effects on murder, rape, and abuse. Government spending on social assistance and more efficient settlement of criminal acts can lower crime rates.