This study investigates the relationship between capital intensity, debt financing, and profitability in non-financial firms in Oman over the period 2012–2022. Using a robust panel dataset of 76 firms, the research explores how capital structure dynamics influence firm performance across different firm sizes and industries. The findings reveal that capital intensity significantly enhances profitability, and debt financing further strengthens this effect, with variations observed across firm size and sector. The analysis also identifies a non-linear (concave) relationship between capital intensity and profitability, indicating that while moderate capital investment improves firm performance, excessive capital accumulation may lead to diminishing returns. Larger firms, with better access to financial resources, exhibit a stronger positive relationship between debt financing and profitability, while smaller firms face more challenges due to limited access to capital. Industry-specific results indicate that capital-intensive sectors, such as Energy and Industrials, demonstrate a more pronounced effect of capital intensity on profitability compared to less capital-intensive sectors. The study also incorporates the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, showing its significant influence on firm performance, particularly in sectors with high debt exposure. By integrating non-linear effects, firm size, industry heterogeneity, and pandemic shocks, this study provides novel insights into capital structure management in emerging economies, offering implications for both corporate decision-makers and policymakers aiming to enhance financial access and optimize debt strategies across sectors.

Reconciling economic growth with environmental sustainability and energy security is a defining challenge for resource-constrained emerging economies. This study examines whether Jordan follows the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) and the Energy Kuznets Curve (EnKC)—two hypotheses positing that as an economy grows, its environmental degradation and energy consumption follow an inverted U-shaped curve in relation to per capita GDP—as counterparts to the original Kuznets curve. While these relationships have been investigated in cross-country settings, little attention has been given to individual emerging economies such as Jordan, where energy and environmental issues are among the most pressing challenges of the new century. The existence of EKC and EnKC curves is tested using a “time-varying parametric (TVP) framework”—specifically, the unobserved components model (UCM), utilizing annual data from 1980 to 2024. Further tests are carried out to validate the nonlinearity hypothesis using the variable-addition test and non-nested model selection tests. Moreover, we augment the EKC and EnKC by incorporating trade openness and urbanization as control variables. For robustness, we support the UCM results with the Dynamic OLS (DOLS) long-run estimator. The results support the EnKC across the entire battery of tests, with a turning point of roughly USD 4000–4650 depending on specification. For the EKC, the OLS quadratic estimation does not exhibit a clear inverted-U; however, once a stochastic trend (UCM) or appropriate covariates (Trade, Urban) are introduced, the inverted-U re-emerges with a turning point near USD 4149–4874. This study contributes novel empirical evidence on the EKC and EnKC for Jordan using a TVP framework. Whereas prior studies have explored the EKC in Jordan, this study systematically validates both the energy and environmental variants of the Kuznets curve using robust econometric strategies. The results offer valuable policy insights for sustainable development in Jordan and other resource-constrained emerging economies facing analogous development–environment trade-offs within international climate transition frameworks.

This study examines the association between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), board independence, and stock illiquidity using an unbalanced panel of 168 non-financial firms listed on the Australian Securities Exchange over the period 2011–2023. Stock illiquidity is measured using the Amihud illiquidity ratio, while CSR is captured through firms’ environmental and social performance. Using fixed-effect model, the study examines both the direct association of CSR with stock illiquidity and the moderating role of board independence. The results indicate that stronger CSR performance is significantly associated with lower stock illiquidity. Board independence is also negatively associated with stock illiquidity, while the interaction between CSR and board independence is negative and statistically significant, suggesting that stronger governance is complementary to CSR in improving stock-market liquidity conditions. These findings remain broadly consistent across alternative liquidity measures and CSR specifications. A pooled heterogeneity analysis with formal interaction and Wald tests further indicates that the CSR–illiquidity association varies significantly across firms with different levels of size, leverage, CSR intensity, and profitability. A formally tested COVID-19 analysis shows that the CSR–illiquidity association changed significantly during 2020–2021, while the three-way interaction provides evidence on whether the moderating role of board independence also changed during the pandemic. Additional instrumental-variable and system-GMM analyses yield qualitatively consistent results, although these are interpreted as robustness evidence rather than definitive causal identification. Overall, the findings highlight the importance of CSR and corporate governance in understanding stock-market illiquidity and provide evidence that their relevance varies across firm characteristics and periods of heightened market uncertainty.