This study investigates the relationship between corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance disclosure and profitability, highlighting the significant differences between the financial and non-financial sectors. This study uses an extensive Australian sample during the 2007–2017 period from Bloomberg’s database. A panel regression model is used to evaluate the association between the corporate ESG performance disclosure and profitability to conduct an industry analysis. The robustness of the results is rigorously assessed using several robustness tests to evaluate the methodological, sample selection, endogeneity and causality issues associated with corporate ESG performance disclosure. This study finds that higher corporate ESG performance disclosure is associated with higher company profitability. However, the industry comparison analysis shows significant differences between financial and non-financial industries. This study finds that for companies operating in non-financial sectors, except for corporate governance, there is no significant association between corporate environmental and social elements and a company’s profitability. Therefore, this study has implications for regulators and corporations. The empirical results of this study show that improving corporate ESG performance disclosure is beneficial to shareholders and other stakeholders in the long run. However, the enforcement of environmentally and socially responsible conduct improves profitability only in the financial industry. This study recommends that the regulators create a conducive institutional environment to promote ESG performance in the financial industry. Therefore, it enhances ESG awareness for the borrowers as well as helps economic development.

This paper examines the effect of energy consumption, globalization, and economic growth on the CO₂ emission of the BRICS (Brazil, Russian Federation, India, China and South Africa) region. Using annual data from 1989 to 2019, this research applies a panel cointegration approach. In this framework, we use Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) and Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) methods to examine the long-run relationship between the selected variables. This empirical investigation reveals that there is a long-run association between these variables, and energy consumption positively and significantly affects the carbon emission in these countries. These results indicate that energy consumption is the primary source of environmental degradation in the region. In contrast, the globalization (KOF Index of Globalization) negatively and significantly affects the carbon emission, implying the improvement of environmental quality. Further, this research could not find the presence of environmental Kuznets curve in the region. Policy guidelines are suggested in the line of findings.

This study aims to examine the effect of the bank-specific and macroeconomic determinants of profitability for the banking sector of Pakistan. To incorporate the issues of endogeneity, unobserved heterogeneity, and profit persistence, we apply a generalised method of moments (GMM) technique under the Arellano–Bond framework to a panel of Pakistani banks that covers the period 2003–2017. The results of a dynamic panel data approach reveal that capital adequacy accelerates the profitability of the banking sector in Pakistan. Capital adequacy helps the financial system to absorb any negative shock by reducing the number of bank failures and losses. Conversely, our empirical investigation reveals that the liquidity ratio, business mix indicators, interest rates, and industrial production deteriorates the bank profitability. Liquidity risks enhance the probability of default risks and transmit into the unpaid loans and hence the lower return. Our empirical evidence further reveals that Pakistani banks are not getting any benefit of the economies of scale in terms of financial performance.

This paper examines the long-run relationship between carbon dioxide (CO2) emission and economic growth, financial development, trade, energy consumption, and foreign direct investment in the case of Lithuania by employing time series data of 1989-2018. In particular, this paper aims to test whether the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) relationship for economic growth and financial development holds or not. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing procedure is employed for the empirical analysis. The results validate the existence of EKC in the long-run as well as in the short-run since there is an inverted U-shaped relation between CO2 emissions and economic growth. Conversely, we could not validate the EKC relationship between CO2 emissions and financial development. Trade and energy consumption are other significant determinants of CO2 emissions. The causality analysis results show that unidirectional causality runs from economic growth to CO2 emissions and trade to CO2 emissions. The validity of the EKC hypothesis indicates that Lithuania can achieve short-term, medium-term, and long-term climate change mitigation and adoption goals and objectives approved by the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania without deteriorating its economic growth.

This study aims to analyse the role of audit and compensation committees’ characteristics in the financial performance of the non-financial sector of Pakistan. For this purpose, we collect data from 2009 to 2020 for 70 non-financial firms selected through stratified random sampling. Theoretically, the committees’ characteristics and financial performance are jointly determined, creating some estimation issues in the panel setting. Therefore, the issue of endogeneity, the dynamic data-generating process and autocorrelation between the residuals needs attention to arrive at consistent and unbiased estimates. To overcome these estimation issues, we estimate the dynamic panel models using difference GMM under the Arellano-Bond framework to arrive at unbiased and consistent estimates. The estimates of this study reveal that the characteristics of the audit and compensation committees improve the overall financial performance of the non-financial sector of Pakistan. The specific estimates of the committee’s characteristics reveal that the audit and compensation committee independence, audit and compensation committee meetings, and audit committee size enhance the financial performance of the non-financial sector of Pakistan. These findings strengthen the idea that the audit and compensation committee should be independent, which helps develop strong internal controls. Therefore, a key policy priority should be to plan for implementing some parts of the Sarbanes Oxley Act in Pakistan. Surprisingly, the audit committee’s existence and the compensation committee head’s independence deteriorate the financial performance of the non-financial sector of Pakistan. This study has raised important questions about the compensation committee chairman’s independence that need further investigation.

This study investigates the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) investment and diffusion on Pakistan’s economic growth by proposing the threshold level of ICT investment. At our proposed level, the ICT imports significantly enhance the intermediate inputs to capital goods, ultimately enhancing economic growth. For this empirical investigation, we use the maximum available data on technological innovation and investment, ranging from 2003 to 2018. Incorporating the structural breaks, the results of regression analysis reveal that Pakistan’s economic growth is unaffected by ICT development. However, we observe the mixed shreds of evidence on the ICT investment. Following existing literature, we use ICT goods exports and imports as a proxy for ICT investment. Interestingly, the economic growth of Pakistan is again unaffected by the ICT goods exports. However, we observe that a one percent increase in ICT goods imports enhances economic growth by 1.73 percent. Then, we extend this analysis to the threshold approach, which reveals that ICT imports affect the overall economic growth when the ICT goods imports reach the level of 4.13 percent of the total imports. At this threshold, the ICT goods import significantly enhances the intermediate input to the capital goods, leading to higher economic growth. Therefore, the policymakers should ensure that the ICT goods import must be greater than the 4.13 percent of Pakistani imports.