Ayesha Afzal

Purpose: This research is imperative in understanding how artificial intelligence (AI) impacts financial market performance, thereby emphasizing the necessity of instituting robust regulatory frameworks. By focusing on the European Union (EU), it illustrates how accountability, transparency and governance quality shape the AI-driven innovation to enhance investor confidence, reduce systemic risks and attain financial stability. Design/methodology/approach: By employing panel data from 24 EU-member states, covering a time period from 2000 to 2022, this paper applies the generalized method of moments to address endogeneity concerns. This analysis is complemented by the Arellano-Bond Estimator as a robustness check, ensuring the validity of the empirical results. Findings: The empirical findings of the paper indicate that strong regulatory frameworks are the foundation of enhanced financial performance since they are incremental in reducing systemic risks and promoting investor confidence. Moreover, ICT diffusion is a vital component that contributes to financial innovation, however its benefits are contingent on effective governance quality. Practical implications: This study has key policy implications for the EU when it comes to amplifying financial market performance, driving sustainability objectives and attaining regulatory reforms. AI integration has become quintessential across the EU financial sector due to its indispensable nature in promoting transparency, accountability, fraud detection services and fair governance practices. Moreover, AI models are being employed across the financial sector for forecasting trends, protecting consumers’ privacy concerns and in FinTech-related services. Originality/value: While existing studies shed light on the broader implications of regulation, and the benefits of governance to amplify technological benefits, they lack in addressing the direct role of regulatory quality on AI’s integration in financial markets. Furthermore, they also neglect the role regulatory quality and patents play on ICT diffusion across financial markets. Thus, this study endeavors to address all of these gaps.

Purpose: Developing strategies to mitigate the adverse environmental effects of climate change requires a thorough understanding of the various factors that influence it to ensure the Sustainable Development Goals related to environmental sustainability are met. In the past few decades, the role of digitalisation in all sectors of the economy has been highlighted, and this research has explored the nexus between digitalisation, sustainable finance and the blue economy to understand their influence on carbon emissions for East Asian economies. Design/methodology/approach: This is an empirical study in which a sample of six East Asian economies from 2009 to 2023 was selected from various secondary databases and analysed using panel-corrected standard errors and feasible generalised regression techniques. Findings: Findings of the study emphasize the crucial significance of sustainable finance and digitalisation in restricting carbon emissions. Moreover, results also suggest that imports have a mitigating effect on carbon emissions; however, exports and economic growth are strongly linked to environmental degradation. Blue economic indicators such as aquaculture and marine tourism have a significantly positive influence, thereby emphasising the need to revise government policies in favour of blue economic development. Practical implications: Findings of this study will extend existing knowledge by taking into consideration environmental innovation and sustainability issues linked to the 2030 Agendas. It will discover, discuss and select issues that are poorly covered or unknown in existing literature regarding various contributions to achieve the SDGs and the actual efficacy of the previously used measurements, especially concerning decision-making. Originality/value: The study has presented novel insights into the nexus between digitalisation, sustainable finance and the blue economy in approaching the environmental challenges related to the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG’s) agenda.

An increase in energy crises and environmental degradation has pushed countries to adopt more sustainable practices. In this situation, financial technology has played an important role to lower carbon emissions by integrating renewable energy resources that can help increase renewable energy resource consumption (REC) and lower carbon emissions (CE). To better understand this transmission mechanism, this study has collected a panel dataset of 26 Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) developing countries for the 2011–2021 period. Furthermore, a proxy indicator for financial technology (FinTech) was developed by extracting relevant data from CrunchBase. Pooled ordinary least square and robust fixed effects technique was adopted to analyse the influence of FinTech on renewable energy and carbon emissions for robustness. Results of the study show that FinTech development promotes renewable energy resource consumption (REC) and discourages carbon emissions (CE), moreover, economic growth positively impacts, and carbon emissions (CE). This research emphasizes the importance of adopting financial technology as an important deterrent of further environmental damage. Additionally, in line with the results of this study, policymakers should design and implement an industrial policy which promotes sustainable economic growth which can pave the path for a circular economy model in the future.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship that exists between financial depth and economic growth in Poland for the years 1995–2019. This paper utilizes integration and co-integration techniques to capture the long-term and short-term linkages between various determinants of financial deepening, economic growth and a few selected growth variables. Financial depth is measured using two distinct measures: the monetization ratio (i.e. the ratio of broad money in the economy to the gross domestic product (GDP)) and the domestic credit provided to private sector by banks.Design/methodology/approach: The paper uses a combination of Augmented Dickey–Fuller (ADF) and Phillips–Perron unit root tests, autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) model and Granger causality tests to estimate results.Findings: This paper finds that there is a bidirectional causal relationship between financial deepening and economic growth in the short run, but this relationship does not hold in the long run. The control variables comprising trade volume, investment, government spending and volatility in oil prices and inflation have a significant, positive relationship with economic development in the long run.Originality/value: The findings are indicative of the need for further strengthening of the financial sector in Poland, such that the relationship between financial depth and economic growth is substantiated in the long run. This paper also finds room for more stringent regulation of the financial system and transparency in information available.

As the global warming crisis is increasing daily, it is crucial to find ways to reduce the carbon footprint generated by activities like the production, consumption, and distribution of goods and services. This empirical study has looked at one approach through which environment-friendly production and consumption can be encouraged. The developed model has studied the relationship between retailers’ access to green finance and consumer purchase intention of green products by incorporating the role of environmental, status, and future consciousness. Theoretical foundations for this model have been taken from the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and theory of reasoned action (TRA), which have extensively discussed the role of consciousness and societal norms while making purchase intentions. To gain insights about the purchasing behaviour of consumers, this study collected data from the Jiangsu province of China, where a non-probability convenience sampling technique was used to distribute a questionnaire to 400 respondents between February 2022 and August 2022. The collected data was analysed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in SmartPLS in order to study the relationship between independent and dependent variables. Results of this study show that retailers’ access to green finance positively impacts consumer purchase intention towards green products, and adding a consciousness perspective in the model strengthens this relationship. Moreover, the theory of planned behaviour and the theory of reasoned action were validated through this study, providing insights for policymakers on the importance of promoting green finance to influence green product purchase intention. Overall, this study shows that policymakers should give green financing to retailers and environmental and future awareness to consumers to encourage environment-friendly behaviour.

Purpose: This research is designed to investigate the presence of market discipline in the banking sector, across Balkan states in Europe. Specifically, the effects of CAMEL variables on the cost of funds and deposit-switching have been assessed.Design/methodology/approach: The CAMEL method of bank evaluation has been applied as well as two measures for market discipline (costs of funds and deposit-switching behaviour). Data have been obtained for 10 Balkan states for the 2006–2019 period. For data analysis, ordinary least squares (OLS) and fixed effects models have been utilized. The generalized method of moments (GMM) method has been deployed as well as a dynamic panel model.Findings: Evidence of market discipline has been found, in the form of a higher cost of funds in the context of capital adequacy (but not for other CAMEL variables). Evidence of market discipline in the form of deposit-switching, however, has not been found. In addition, it has been discovered that bank size and gross domestic product (GDP) growth lower the costs of funds for banks.Originality/value: In the wake of the pandemic, banks need to prepare themselves for very difficult situations and relevant studies can provide help. Therefore, this research has contributed to the developing literature on this topic. In addition, the findings have important practical implications. Results show that banks should maintain adequate levels of capital if they want to control their costs of funds. Results also show that market discipline, in the form of higher costs of funds, can be imposed on banks to discourage excessive risk-taking. Findings highlight the value of appropriate policies and strong supervision of the financial industry. Findings also underline the importance of offering financial incentives to banks. For example, if banks know they will be able to avoid higher costs of funds by controlling their risk levels, they will avoid unrestrained risk-taking.