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This study aims to interrogate dynamic asymmetric relationships between public debt and economic growth in Southern African Developing Communities (SADC), over the period 2000–2018.

The study employed a panel smooth transition regression (PSTR) technique to analyse dynamic asymmetric relationships between public debt and economic growth, and the threshold effect at which public debt hampers economic growth.

The findings indicate that there is a significant nonlinear effect of debt on economic growth in SADC. The study discovered a debt threshold of 60% to GDP at which debt beyond this threshold deteriorates long-term growth. The low-debt regime was found to be positive and statistically significant, while the high-debt regime is detrimental for long-term growth. Fiscal policymakers ought to consider the adoption of well-coordinated debt policies that aims to strike a balance between sustainable public debt and economic growth, within a reasonable threshold target.

The study focusses on asymmetric and threshold analysis of public debt on economic growth in SADC using sophisticated panel smooth transition regression (STAR). This study provides rigorous empirical evidence within the SADC perspective in which previous studies have predominantly been confined in advanced economies.

Today, the increasing use of fossil fuels, energy security, concerns and the great importance of achieving sustainable economic growth underscore the urgent need to transition to a green energy system as soon as possible. To shed light on the relationship between the economy and renewable energy, this study assesses the nonlinear relationship between renewable energy consumption and economic growth for 24 OECD countries between 1990 and 2015.

The authors apply two nonlinear models: panel threshold regression (PTR) and panel smooth transition regression (PSTR).

The results show that the positive effect of renewable energy consumption on economic growth is conditional. On the one hand, the results of the nonlinear PTR model yielded a threshold value for renewable energy consumption of about 251.17. Below this threshold, the authors find a negative impact of renewable energy consumption on economic growth. However, above this threshold, renewable energy consumption becomes a favorable source of economic growth. Using the nonlinear PSTR model based on the gamma transition parameter of 2.014, the transition from low renewable energy consumption regime to higher is abrupt.

Referring to previous studies analyzing linear causality between renewable energy and economic growth, most of the results show various mixed and non-stable effects over the study period. The contributions of this study consist in conduct a series of empirical tests of the nonlinear effects of renewable energy use on economic growth using two nonlinear approaches such as the PTR and PSTR models. If the authors show that such a relationship is nonlinear, it is essential to check whether the transition from one weak regime to another strong regime is abrupt or smooth, using the PSTR approach.

The purpose of this study is twofold: first is to examine the nonlinear relationship between tourism development and housing prices, and secondly, the role of economic growth in facilitating the materialization of tourism development and housing prices nexus in G7 countries.

The authors used the newly introduced econometric technique panel smooth transition regression (PSTR) model with two regimes on annual panel data from 1995 to 2018.

Results confirmed that the nexus between the tourism development and housing prices is nonlinear and regime dependent. Moreover, the results showed that the threshold level of economic growth above which tourism development increases the housing prices is 2.63%. The relationship above the threshold value is positive and growth enhancing, while below the threshold, tourism development has a negative effect on housing prices. The economic growth and housing prices also showed the U-shape relationship implying that at a certain level increase in economic growth decreases the housing prices but after a certain level increase in economic growth increases the housing prices.

This paper makes a unique contribution to the literature with reference to developed economies, being a pioneering attempt to investigate the nonlinear relationship between tourism development and housing prices and applying more rigorous and advanced econometric techniques like PSTR.

This study examines the role of financial development (FD) in enhancing the growth effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) in emerging and developing Asia from 1996 to 2019.

The study exploits the new broad-based Financial Development Index of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and adopts panel smooth transition regression (PSTR) to perform alternative empirical models for a multidimensional analysis of the FD threshold effect in the growth–FDI nexus.

The results show two thresholds of FD mediating the nonlinear effect of FDI on growth. FD beyond a certain level will enhance the growth effect of FDI, but very high levels of FD will not induce foreign investment to benefit economic growth in emerging and developing Asian economies. The impact of financial institutions on the FDI–growth link is stronger than that of financial markets. Besides, FDI’s effect on growth has an inverted-U shape conditional on financial depth, whereas it is positively associated with the accessibility and efficiency of the financial system.

These results suggest policy implications for emerging and developing Asian countries, emphasizing the other side of “too much finance” and the potential for improvement in the access to and efficiency of the financial system to boost the effects of FDI and FD in the growth of these economies.

The study is the first multifaceted investigation into the influence of FD on the growth effect of FDI. Beyond the previous empirical evidence showing only the impact of credit from banking sector, this study shows different mediating effects of different financial sectors and three dimensions of financing (depth, access and efficiency). The study suggests essential implications for the region in adjusting long-run policies to enhance the FDI–FD–growth link.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the link between corruption and government debt through a regime-based approach.

The empirical analysis makes use of a panel of 120 countries, spanning the period 1999–2015. The study makes use of the Panel Smooth Transition Regression (PSTR) methodological approach, as well as two alternative measures of corruption.

The empirical results document that the relationship between corruption and debt is non-linear, while a strong threshold effect was present as well. Public debt appears to respond faster to a high corruption regime compared to a low corruption regime, while an increase in the size of the shadow economy, government expenses, the inflation rate, interest payments on debt and military expenditure all increased the debt to GDP ratio. By contrast, an increase in GDP per capita, the secondary school enrollment ratio and the ratio of tax revenues to GDP led to a fall in the debt to GDP ratio. The findings survive certain robust checks when the role of the 2008 financial crisis is explicitly considered, as well as when two separate country samples were considered, i.e. developed vs developing countries.

Governments should aim to control both corruption and the size of the shadow economy if they really wish to reduce any high levels of their public debt. As debt levels respond faster to high corruption regimes, it is necessary that measures to reduce corruption are complemented by higher GDP per capita growth rates, enrolment rates and higher tax revenues.

The novelty of the paper is that it investigates for the first time, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the presence of non-linearity between corruption and government debt. It proposes non-linear panel cointegration and causality tests, as well as a non-linear panel error correction model that allows for smooth changes between regimes, hence, examining causal relationships in each regime separately.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth contingent on the development level of the local financial system in emerging and developing Asia during the period 1996–2017.

The study adopts the threshold approach, namely the panel smooth transition regression (PSTR) model, for the annual data collection of 18 emerging and developing Asian countries in 22 years. The authors analyze the alternative PSTR models on different proxies of financial development (FD).

The results show new findings of two distinct thresholds of FD in the FDI–growth nexus. The growth-enhancing effect of FDI is realized only when the FD lies between the two threshold values. Notably, at very high levels of FD, the beneficial effect of FDI on growth is vanishing.

The authors provide new insights into the growth effect of FDI and the role of FD. The estimated nonlinear effect of FDI on growth and the thresholds of FD can be benchmarks for emerging and developing Asia in assessment of their situations. The results suggest important implications to the region in setting the long-run policies to boost the effect of FDI on economic growth.

The authors investigate the growth–inequality relationship, using panel data from 13 Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries over the period 1990–2015, to test the validity of the Kuznets and Tribble theories. Furthermore, the authors seek to determine the threshold level at which excessive growth hampers inequality.

The panel smooth transition regression (PSTR) model has several stages. The authors applied the Lagrange multiplier (LM) test to find the appropriate transition variable amongst all candidate variables, to assess the linearity between economic growth and income inequality and to find the sequence for selecting the order m of the transition function. The authors then estimated the PSTR model, but before facilitating the results, the authors first used the wild cluster bootstrap (WCB)–LM-type test to assess the appropriateness of the selected transition.

The authors found that at lower growth, income inequality tends to be lower, while if growth increases above US$8,969, inequality tends to increase in the SADC region. The findings combine into a U-shaped relationship, contradicting the Kuznets and Tribble theories.

The contribution of this paper is that it becomes the first to provide the threshold level at which excessive growth increases inequality in the selected countries. This study proposes that policymakers should focus on activities aimed at stimulating growth, in other words, activities such as spending more on infrastructure, drawing up a suitable investment portfolio and spending on technological investment for countries that are below US$8,969. An improvement in these activities will create job opportunities, which in turn will add to economic growth and thus lead to lower income inequality and better social cohesion.

This study is aimed at testing the validity of the BARS theory and determining the threshold level at which excessive government expenditure hampers growth. The data from 10 African emerging economies from 1988 to 2019 were used.

The methodology comprises several different stages. In the first stage, an Lagrange Multiplier (LM) type test was employed to find the appropriate transition variable among all the candidate variables to assess the linearity between government expenditure and economic growth and to find the sequence for selecting the order m of the transition function. The linearity test helped to identify the nature of the relationships between government expenditure and economic growth. In the second stage, the model evaluation was tested using the wild cluster bootstrap-Lagrange Multiplier (WCL-LM) test to assess appropriateness of the model. Thirdly, the Panel smooth transition regression (PSTR) model with one regime was estimated to test the validity of the BARS curve.

The results revealed evidence of nonlinear effects between government expenditure and economic growth, where the size of the government spending was found to be a 27.84% share of GDP, above which government expenditure caused growth to decline in African emerging economies. The findings combined into an inverted U-shape relationship, in line with the BARS theory.

This study proposes that policy-makers ought to formulate prudent fiscal policies that encourage expenditure, which would improve growth for selected countries as their current level of spending is below the threshold. This might be done through: (1) a suitable investment portfolio and (2) spending more on infrastructure.

The purpose of this study is to seek to re-examine the threshold effects of public debt on economic growth in Africa.

This study applies panel smooth transition regression approach advanced by González et al. (2017). The method allows for both heterogeneity as well as a smooth change of regression coefficients from one regime to another.

A debt threshold in the range of 62–66% is estimated for the whole sample. Low debt is found to be growth neutral but higher public debt is growth detrimental. For middle-income and resource-intensive countries, a debt threshold in the range of 58–63% is estimated. As part of robustness checks, a dynamic panel threshold model was also applied to deal with the endogeneity of debt, and a much higher debt threshold was estimated, at 74.3%. While low public debt is found to be either growth neutral or growth enhancing, high public debt is consistently detrimental to growth.

The findings of this study show that there is no single debt threshold applicable to all African countries, and confirm that the debt threshold level is sensitive to modeling choices. While further analysis is still needed to suggest a policy, the findings of this study show that high debt is detrimental to growth.

The novelty of this study is twofold. Contrary to previous studies on Africa, this study applies a different estimation technique which allows for heterogeneity and a smooth change of regression coefficients from one regime to another. Another novelty distinct from the previous studies is that, for robustness checks, this study divides the sample into low- and middle-income countries, and into resource- and nonresource intensive countries, as debt experience can differ among country groups. Further, as part of robustness checks, another estimation method is also applied in which the threshold variable (debt) is allowed to be endogenous.

This study aims to investigate whether threshold effects exist in the relationship between board gender diversity and firm performance.

This study applies the panel smooth threshold regression model (PSTR) to a sample of 284 non-financial French firms listed on Euronext Paris over the period 2009–2017. Firm performance proxies are Tobin’s Q and return on assets (ROA). The board gender diversity is measured by the percentage of women participation in board.

Threshold effects in the relationships between board gender diversity and firm performance measures are found. For Tobin’s Q, the model has one threshold at the 34.17% of women directors’ appointment on boards. Similarly, for ROA, the model has one threshold at the 38.28% of women presence in the board. The results show that above the estimated threshold, women directorship has a positive impact on firm performance. However, below the threshold, there is a neutral relationship. The findings support the critical mass view that a minimum of one third women representation in board is compulsory to achieve the desired effect of gender diversity.

This study’s finding provides useful insights to managers, investors and policymakers. Managers and investors can identify the adequate board gender diversity levels that enhance firm performance. Policymakers are divided on whether mandatory or voluntary board gender quota should be adopted. This study suggests that a quota of one third can be used in policy implementation.

Unlike prior studies that consider the relationship between firm performance and board gender diversity as linear, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the threshold effects in this relationship using a new econometric approach.