Purpose: The majority of MENA countries suffer low levels of human development, coupled with scarcity of funding resources, low level of governance, and poor institutional environment. Consequently, this research aims at detecting the impact of development finance resources and institutional quality on the human development in the MENA region, in order to examine if/why the MENA countries fail to efficiently exploit all the available financial inflows to promote human development and boost living standards.Design/methodology/approach: This study tests the short- and long-run impact of six financing resources representing injections in the economy and four institutional quality variables on the human development index in the MENA region. It adopts co-integration analysis, vector error correction model, and Granger causality test on a sample of 13 MENA countries over the period 1996–2019.Findings: This research finds that domestic credit to private sector and exports of goods and services do not have any significant added value for human development in the MENA region. In contrast, government expenditures and migrant remittances are found to be crucial in promoting human development in both the short- and long-run. FDI and ODA do enhance human development, but only in the short-run. In parallel, control of corruption, government effectiveness and regulation quality are essential boosters of human development in the MENA region, but with different importance, while political stability was found to be irrelevant.Originality/value: To the authors’ best knowledge, this is the first study that examines the impact of financial inflows and institutional quality on the overall human development index in the MENA region. The contribution of this paper lies in unlocking for policymakers the potential impactful financing resources to serve national developmental plans, in an endeavour to catch up to the SDGs amid the additional challenges imposed by governance and institutional environment.

The literature on the association between financial development and environment quality covers many dimensions. Nonetheless, the role of governance and institutional quality in this relationship has been highlighted moderately. Consequently, this research aims at extending the existing literature on the impact of financial development on CO2 emission, by integrating the role of institutional quality in the financial development-carbon emission nexus. By adopting a panel dataset of 20 MENA countries between 2002 and 2018 and using dynamic GMM models, the study examines firstly the impact of institutional quality on carbon emissions and revealed the important role of government effectiveness and quality of regulation in preserving environment quality. Furthermore, the paper tests how the combination of financial development and institutional quality can change the dynamic of their separate control ability on pollution. The results show indeed that their impact on CO2 emissions is amplified and changes from non-Granger cause type to Granger cause type.

Purpose: In light of continuous concerns about financial and banking stability, this study investigates the determinants of banking crises by analysing the impact of a comprehensive set of macroeconomic, financial, and banking sector variables on the probability of banking crises. Design/methodology/approach: This paper exploits a Logit model for a panel dataset covering 166 countries from 1980 to 2021 to identify the determinants of banking crises. It incorporates a comprehensive set of explanatory variables, including macroeconomic factors, financial sector indicators, and banking-specific characteristics. This study also controls for contagion effects. Findings: The study finds that excessive bank credit growth, a large banking sector size, high inflation, current account deficits, bank inefficiency, and high non-performing loans increase the likelihood of banking crises in emerging economies. In contrast, broad money growth, central bank reserves, GDP per capita growth, current account surplus, and strong bank profitability and capitalisation mitigate crisis risks. Moreover, this study shows that banking crises tend to spread regionally. Originality/value: Unlike previous studies, this study incorporates banking sector size, central bank size, and credit to the government as key variables. It also examines whether the determinants of banking crises change in light of global shocks and analyses regional spillover effects. By providing new insights into crisis transmission and policy implications, this study enhances the understanding of banking crises and offers valuable guidance to policymakers in financial stability management.

Purpose: This paper aims at shedding light on the entrepreneurs' perception towards crowdfunding as a new mean for raising capital, and their willingness to send appropriate signals to the potential fund providers/backers.Design/methodology/approach: The research strategy is based on three methodological approaches: desk research on online sources, a map of the crowdfunding phenomenon, and a quantitative approach with a survey performed between June and December 2020. The survey covers a sample of 147 Small and Medium enterprises (SMEs) and startups, in addition to semi-structured interviews with 10 entrepreneurs.Findings: The study reveals that between losing their work and losing part of their firms' equity, entrepreneurs are keen on sending positive signals to backers. Moreover, they are willing to adopt a new way of thinking, as their primary goal is to save their firms, their jobs, and their source of income. The research highlights the concern of entrepreneurs of losing reputation, losing intellectual property, losing control, and of becoming only shareholders in their enterprises.Research limitations/implications: The main limitation in this paper is that no single study in Lebanon adequately covers the topic and thus extensive research has been carried out on crowdfunding across the world and analyzed in the Lebanese context.Practical implications: Overcoming funding challenges can reduce brain drain, promote a culture of entrepreneurship, serve the economy, combat poverty, achieve more equitable society, increase the levels of expectations, and turn the flywheel. Moreover, the paper presents clear implications for the field of policy-making both in developing and developed countries.Originality/value: Considering the serious financial disintermediation and liquidity shortage Lebanon faces, the findings of this study show how important changing entrepreneurial culture and behavior is, and the crucial role crowdfunding could play in providing funds for the SMEs that form 95% of the total business sector in Lebanon.

This paper aimed at studying the development of bank fragility in Lebanon over the period 1990-2013. Using the Z-score measure, we find significant improvement of bank stability over the studied period. We also detect the impact of several internal and external factors on Z-score and find that bank size, liquidity, and market concentration boost bank stability. Conversely, higher net interest margin, deposit growth, and inefficiency increase insolvency risk. We extend our analysis and test the impact of variable interactions on Z-score and show that the common impact of many variables totally differs from the impact of those variables separately. This finding stresses the importance of looking beyond the influence of each factor individually and considering the impact of interaction among variables on bank fragility.

Financing for Development was addressed by the international community since more than 25 years, when the Monterrey Consensus of the International Conference on Financing for Development (Monterrey, Mexico, March 2002) urged mobilising and increasing the effective use of financial resources to fulfil the internationally agreed Millennium Development Goals. In 2015, a new Development Agenda was designed and was based on the Development Finance. Consequently, the efficient exploitation of traditional and innovative finance resources in economic, social and human development has become a global top priority. This study analyses the impact of 7 resources of financial flows on 6 socio-economic variables in a sample of 19 MENA countries over the period 1991–2015 to test the efficient exploitation of these resources in development. The results show that government spending and official development assistance are the most important factor in boosting development in the MENA region. International trade plays a limited role in financing development, whereas foreign direct investment has the least effect on MENA development.