The paper presents the results of a study that attempts to investigate the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on environmental performance (EP) by constructing a panel quantile regression model. Based on panel data from 1990 to 2014, this study contributes to evaluate the EP of each of the 40 countries using a directional slack-based model considering undesirable output. Our findings reveal several key conclusions: first, FDI has an insignificant influence on EP for the full sample. Second, the impact of FDI on EP between developed and developing countries exists heterogeneity. Furthermore, there is heterogeneity regarding the effect of FDI on EP at different quantiles of EP in developed countries. Specifically, in the developed countries, the effect is statistically insignificant at the lower quantile of EP, then it turns significantly positive at the middle and high quantile, and the positive effect rises with the increase of quantiles of EP. Finally, based on the conclusions of quantitative analysis, some important policy recommendations are proposed: different governments ought to enact different strategies for the introduction of FDI, according to different development situations of different countries.

The article aims to explore the heterogeneous feature in the determination of Bitcoin volatility using a Markov regime-switching model and test its forecasting ability. The forecasting methodology of the risk measurement of Bitcoin’s returns is based on the Conditional Autoregressive Value at Risk models (CAViaR) approach. Our results show that Bitcoin’s volatility is significantly related to the volatility of the crypto-asset’s return and the main determinants of volatility are speculation, investor attention, market interoperability and the interaction between speculation and market interoperability. In addition, we present evidence that investors’ attention is the main source of volatility. Speculation and the interaction term are related in a “U-shaped” form, whereas investor attention and market interoperability show a linear trend on the volatility of Bitcoin.

In this article, we investigate the nonlinear impact on outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) using panel smooth transition regression (PSTR) model with the sample of 12 countries along “The Belt and Road Initiative” in the period of 2010–2015. We find that both overall economic freedom (EF), the interaction of EF and institutional instance, bilateral trade, GDP, and patent significantly influence OFDI. We also demonstrate that EF and economic development exert the inverted “U” effect on OFDI in the different regime. Accordingly, policies specifically designed to increase development of OFDI should be required to address the negative effects considering the differences of EF and economic development.

Because of the crucial implications of the market power of OPEC, the aim of this paper was to investigate the oil asymmetric market reactions, such as the price and risk reactions, to OPEC’s announcements. Specifically, this paper first explored the oil price reactions to OPEC’s announcements and their heterogeneity to depict the directional role of OPEC based on event study methodology. Furthermore, this paper analyzed the oil risk reactions in the framework of a linear model. Our findings reveal several key results. The oil price reactions to OPEC production decisions behave quite heterogeneously in three kinds of decisions. Specifically, the reaction to announcements of a production increase shows an invert “U” shape, whereas there is a linear effect of cut announcements. Otherwise, when a maintain decision is announced, the oil prices have no obvious change over the sample period. Additionally, the oil risk reactions to OPEC’s announcements are heavily related to the interaction item between OPEC decisions and its production over full sample periods. Furthermore, OPEC’s role in promoting stability in crude oil markets by changing its production shows a heterogeneous condition after global financial crisis.

Balancing the oil pass-through to consumer and producer prices is crucial for policymakers. This study aimed to advance associated thinking by examining how consumer and producer prices in China related to changes in global oil prices from 2006 to 2018. First, we investigated the pass-through of oil spot prices to consumer prices as indicated by the consumer price index (CPI) and means of consumption price index (MCPI), and to producer prices as indicated by the producer price index (PPI) and means of production price index (MPPI), with a monetary policy in China. This study also explored the non-linear and mediating effects of financial markets and government debt on linkages between oil prices and consumer/producer prices based on non-linear framework and causal steps approach, respectively. Our findings indicated some key points; for example, the pass-through of oil prices with a monetary policy in China shed light on a benchmark role in global oil markets. Additionally, the non-linear effect of oil prices on consumer/producer prices varied across the Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil markets. The mediating effect of government debt also reflected the effectiveness in balancing the relationship between oil prices and producer prices. Government debt explained the −0.091 transition between the Brent oil price and the PPI and could explain the −0.095 transition between the Brent oil price and the MPPI, whereas the transition due to financial markets were −0.064 and −0.080, respectively. These outcomes have important implications for stabilizing price levels in countries.

In this paper, we measure the asymmetric volatility spillover among six virtual financial asset (VFA) markets from January 1, 2014, to September 30, 2017, using the volatility spillover index based on a Markov regime-switching vector autoregressive (VAR) model and conduct a static and dynamic analysis under different regimes. The static results show that asymmetric effects of total, internal and net volatility spillover, on average, exist in all six VFA markets under different regimes. The dynamic results show that total, directional, and net spillover have significantly asymmetric effects. Thus, the government should monitor the specific VFA regimes and improve market regulation.