Assessing the development of transport and logistics sector in Azerbaijan and the impact of transport investment: cross-country analysis

This study aims to observe the long run and short run effects of gross domestic product, foreign direct investment inflows and trade on CO₂ emissions and causality relationships between these factors, using annual data for the period of 1974-2010. The empirical results demonstrate that the inverted U-shaped relationship of environmental Kuznets curve is valid for Turkey. In addition, there are positive long run effects of foreign direct investment and trade openness on CO₂ emissions. The authors also find a bidirectional causality relationship between CO₂ emission and FDI.

FinTech startups and services are one of the most dynamic segments of the modern economy. New financial technologies have already attracted many investors and form millions of budgets. Changing the traditional financial services concept, FinTech companies formed a new niche within the financial services market, the dynamic development of which determines the relevance of the development and implementation of an effective regulatory and oversight system.
The purpose of the article is to develop an economic and mathematical model for forecasting the development of the FinTech market on the example of Ukraine. In order to study the development of the FinTech industry, a multiple regression model was presented. The model describes the dependence of the total investment value of FinTech from venture investments in financial technology, venture investments in other technologies and venture investments in online lending. Based on this model, the effect of attracting investments with new FinTech projects on the total volume of investments in the industry was clarified. According to the model, with a change in investments in FinTech by 1%, the total rate of venture investments decreases by 0.03, funds in new projects of other companies grow by 0.05, and venture investments in online lending increase by 0.89. According to the analysis of regulatory legislation in the foreign countries of the FinTech services sphere, it was found that the regulation of most of the risks associated with the development of FinTech services falls within the competence of different supervisory authorities, requiring cross-sectoral cooperation between public institutions.

Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) have emerged as an accelerator of economic growth with a sizeable contribution in job creation, innovation development, and reduction of regional disparities in most world economies. This paper investigates the influence of external and internal factors affecting the growth of MSMEs in poor-performing Bihar state, India. The objective of the study is to identify the major deep-rooted causes for the inability of MSMEs to compete in developing states and identify potential solutions. The study is based on an empirical database; it tested various dimensions of MSMEs barriers in their potential growth. The target group included MSMEs of Bihar state, India, using a sample of 450 entrepreneurs. The paper adopted a multistage stage sampling and multivariate analysis technique. The results showed that there are twelve major potential barriers, both endogenous and exogenous, faced by MSMEs, such as availability of raw materials, financial issues, labor force challenges, technology inefficiency, power/electricity scarcity, poor marketing, competition, knowledge-related challenges, government and administration problems, infrastructure inefficiency, etc. The findings show that these barriers affect the promotion and growth of MSMEs in developing regions. In future, it is suggested to focus on the implementation of good governance that helps to remove effectively the major barriers of MSMEs in underdeveloped states, such as Bihar, India.