This study investigated the effect of technology and government policies on carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in 36 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries from 1994 to 2015. This empirical investigation uses econometric models, such as panel quantile regression and ordinary least squares (OLS). The research uses the method proposed by Lin and Ng in 2015 to deal with parameter heterogeneity across countries that identified two separate groups. The empirical results indicated that Gross Domestic Product (GDP), fossil fuel consumption, industrialisation and taxation to GDP intensify CO₂ emissions. In contrast, urbanisation (% of the total population), environmental patents, and environmental tax as a percentage of total tax reduce CO₂ gas emissions. Estimates with homogeneity preserve the signs of the parameters but reveal substantial differences in intensity and that environmental tax revenues (as % of GDP and % of tax) are only statistically significant for our studied group 1. The conclusions of this study have important policy implications. The effect of industrialisation on environmental degradation is an observable fact. When the country reaches the allowable thresholds, it needs to maximize energy consumption. Policymakers should design policies that help them to promote environmentally sustainable economic growth by imposing and accumulating environmental taxes. In addition, environmental taxes, the discharge system and credit could support the modification of in-industrial structures and modes of economic growth. Policymakers should also use policies that encourage trade in nuclear-generated electricity to neighbouring OECD countries.

The traditional perspective of finance believes that volatility in the stock market is due to market efficiency. However, the perspective of modern behavioral finance is more concerned with the emotional and psychological factors associated with an investor. This research aims to identify the multi-mediating mechanism of risk perception and dividend policy in the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). The cross-sectional quantitative design was used, and the data was collected from 256 individuals for further analysis. The structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to assess the multi-mediation mechanism. The statistical results confirm that there is a significant positive impact of herding behavior and disposition effect on investment decisions. Moreover, this direct relationship is further assessed by inducting risk perception and dividend policy as mediators. The multi-mediation was proved by observing the specific effects. The results confirmed that individuals with an outcome of investment decision intend to behave more positively. Hence, individual investors having herding behavior and disposition effect produce an emphasizing effect on investment decision because it is mitigated with the simultaneous mediating effects of risk perception and dividend policy. The findings imply that investors should be aware of their behavioral factors and policymakers have to make their strategy accordingly.

This study investigates the role of institutions in Pakistan’s efforts to stimulate technological progress, specifically analysing the evolution of institutional quality, technology transfer through technical cooperation grants, technological progress and economic growth. The role of institutional quality is emphasised, as proactive institutional coordination is paramount to achieve technological upgrading. As the evidence amassed shows, Pakistan’s institutional quality ranks lower than the successful industrialisers of East Asia, such as Japan, Korea and Taiwan. To ensure the robustness of our findings, data from 1996 to 2020 was deployed. The findings underscore the importance of policymakers in Pakistan directing their attention to fostering skills and competencies essential for patents or cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset, underlining the critical role of strong institutions in this process.

The current study examines the impact of global financial crises on the capital structure of engineering small and medium enterprises in Pakistan. The study takes GDP as an indicator of financial crises and total debt to total asset ratio, long-term debt to total debt ratio and long-term debt to total asset ratio as indicators of capital structure. The study mainly focuses on panel data from 5 years by including pre and post-crisis periods. The sample size of the study is 20 engineering small and medium enterprises in Pakistan. The research uses inferential statistical techniques to extract results. The findings depict that the financial crises have an insignificant effect on the capital structure of engineering small and medium enterprises in Pakistan. Moreover, by analyzing the statistics, we see that debt financing is frequently decreasing in engineering small and medium enterprises in Pakistan after the occurrence of this financial crisis globally.