Long-run analysis of Environmental Kuznets Curve in the Middle East and North Africa

This research analyzes the determinants of bank profitability by investigating the internal factors that affect the profitability of Islamic banks and conventional banks. It then compares the results from the two types in order to understand how they differ from each other. As previous researchers focus on either Islamic or conventional banks, this research will analyze both by comparing how they are each influenced by profitability factors. Few researches have attempted to compare the profitability of Islamic and conventional banks using a relatively small sample. This research uses a fixed effect panel data analysis on a large sample of 68 banks (42 Islamic and 26 conventional banks) from 13 MENA countries, covering the period of 2006 until 2016. Using several variables, including bank size, equities to assets, loans to assets, deposits to assets, cash to assets and securities to assets, the results show that bank size, equities to assets and deposits to assets have a significant positive effect on Islamic banks’ profitability, while they have a significant negative effect on conventional banks’ profitability; loans to assets and cash to assets have no effect on bank profitability for either Islamic or conventional banks; and securities to assets has a significant negative effect on Islamic banks’ profitability, while it has a significant positive effect on conventional banks’ profitability. The results also show that bank size, equities to assets, deposits to assets and cash to assets contribute more to Islamic banks’ profitability compared to conventional banks, while loans to assets and securities to assets contribute more to conventional banks’ profitability compared to Islamic banks.

Economic theory and recent empirical evidence show that nonlinear progressive water pricing policies are the most useful tool to reduce water demand in water stressed countries. The originality of our paper is to implement Pedroni (1999) panel cointegration tests, using databases on a breakdown of two consumption blocks (a lower and an upper block) from the Tunisian water regulator over 27 years. The results reveal that increasing block tariffs have been successful in managing scarce water in Tunisia. The authors observe that, in the long-run, proportion of subscribers in the upper water consumption block decreases when price increases, while in the lower block, which is composed essentially of low-income households characterized by inelastic water demand, proportion of subscribers is less elastic to price changes and still unchanged. This paper calls for the implementation of nonlinear progressive pricing to reduce demand by large consumers in order to promote efficiency in use and to promote the access of poor consumers to the resource in order to promote equity.

The design, implementation, and evaluation of energy policies in combating climate change are becoming increasingly evident to strengthen economic growth driven by the agricultural sector in most developing countries. The study analyzes the direct and indirect effects of renewable energy consumption (REC) on agriculture value-added (AgVA), CO2 emissions, and trade openness in the short- and long-run in the West African countries. The second-generation panel unit root tests, the panel cointegration methods, and Panel Vector Error Correction Model are used with World Bank data from 1990 to 2015. A panel Granger causality test was also used to determine the direction of causality between variables. Findings show a unidirectional relationship between AgVA, CO2 emissions, and REC; between REC, gross fixe capital formation (GFCF) and trade openness. Moreover, the bidirectional hypothesis is verified between agricultural development and trade openness. However, the null hypothesis is found between AgVA and GFCF, on the one hand, and GFCF and CO2 emissions, on the other hand. These results suggest that fostering renewable energy policy and revisiting trade policy toward reducing environmental pollution will enable agricultural development and boost the regional economy.

Acknowledgment
The author wants to thank Dr. Moukpè GNINIGUE for his technical supports and Prof. Jean Marcelin Bosson BROU from the University of Houphouet Boigny (Cote d’Ivoire), Dr. Odzadifo K. WONYRA and Dr. Hodabalo BATAKA from the University of Kara, Dr. Koffi Massesso ADJI from the West African Sciences Services Centre on Climate Change and Land Use (University of Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar) and Essotanam MAMBA from the University of Lomé for their constructive comments on the earlier version of this manuscripts. Finally, the author is grateful to the anonymous reviewers and Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Economics, whose comments have improved this paper. However, the opinions expressed in this paper are solely those of the author.