Terms of trade is associated with the gains from trade and subsequent economic welfare for a nation. Previous studies on terms of trade for oil exporting countries particularly investigating for a favorable terms of trade are missing. The study applies the Fixed Effect model on a panel of six oil producing countries of Gulf Cooperation Council for the period 2008 to 2016 and find that oil price is negatively associated with terms of trade, albeit weakly. Terms of trade is positively associated with economic growth; hence this study refutes the Prebisch-Singer hypothesis for these countries. Moreover, terms of trade is positively associated with trade opens and are not significantly associated with institutions, exchange rate and inflation. The results imply that these oil exporting countries have to reduce their dependence on oil price to attain favorable terms of trade through diversification of the export basket. Also further integration with the world economy through higher trade openness will help these countries to improve their terms of trade. This examination of factors impacting the terms of trade of oil exporting countries of GCC happens to fill a gap in the existing literature.

Technological advancements have been the driving factor responsible for the structural composition of the financial markets and the development of digital financial technologies. The widespread use of information and communication technology (ICT) and artificial intelligence in the operation of the global financial sector is the hallmark of this development. Access to and usage of financial services have changed significantly due to this revolution and, more recently, the pandemic, which embraced digital solutions. Digitization of the economy promotes economic growth through inclusivity, efficiency, and innovation. The availability of electronic payment systems triggers a positive economic impact through rising consumption and production, thereby creating more employment and income and, in turn, strengthening economic growth. It benefits consumers and merchants as these payment methods are safer and more efficient, convenient, transparent, and affordable. Many empirical studies support the idea that digital financial development is crucial for enhancing efficiency and productivity and promoting a country’s economic growth. The study explores the relationship between gross value added, credit transfer, debit transfer, card payment, and prepaid instruments in India taking quarterly data from 2011 to 2019 and using the Autoregressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) model. The study reports a cointegrating relationship between the variables and discusses the implications of this relationship.

Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is a mobile-based contemporary digital payment system that has transformed and revolutionized financial transactions in India. Its adoption and usage can help bridge the digital divide and contribute to economic growth by integrating more individuals into the formal financial system. This study used logistic regression analysis, a method for modelling binary outcomes, to analyse the likelihood of UPI usage based on primary data collected from rural areas of Aligarh district. The analysis identified several significant predictors of UPI adoption, including younger age, male gender, higher education, specific occupations, and higher income. These factors were positively associated with the likelihood of using UPI payments. In contrast, caste, religion, JDY account holders and marital status were found to be insignificant predictors. The findings suggest that targeted financial literacy programs, gender-specific initiatives, youth engagement, and incentives for low-income groups could effectively boost UPI adoption, thereby facilitating financial inclusion and reducing the digital divide in rural areas.

International organizations and researchers have built diverse systems to define and measure financial inclusion. It emphasizes access to, usage, and understanding of traditional financial products and services, which primarily rely on physical access to banks. However, many are underbanked and have no access to these financial services. The recent technological advancements are transforming the economy, followed by the widespread use of digital devices. These technological innovations have led to the development of digital financial services and emerged as a key factor in financial inclusion. Therefore, the current financial research has shifted its focus to combining inclusive finance with digital inclusion to define digital financial inclusion. This paper reviews methodological frameworks used to define and measure financial inclusion, digital inclusion, and digital financial inclusion. It also proposes a methodological framework for measuring digital financial inclusion in light of existing literature and the context of transforming the economy through digitalization.

The empirical relationship between energy consumption and economic growth is complex and varies by country and model specification. This study focuses on Saudi Arabia, one of the largest producers and exporters of crude oil, to explore this relationship. Our analysis refutes the Energy-Kuznets Curve hypothesis for Saudi Arabia, finding neither a linear nor a curvilinear relationship between economic growth and energy consumption. Instead, we observe an asymmetric impact of economic growth on energy consumption: the rate of increase in energy consumption with rising per capita income differs from the rate of decrease when per capita income falls. Additionally, the study reveals a positive impact of investment on energy consumption, indicating a dynamic interplay between economic growth, industrial activity, and improved energy access. These findings suggest that energy consumption patterns in Saudi Arabia are intricately linked to economic fluctuations but are not uniformly predictable. Policy recommendations are provided to address these complexities and promote sustainable growth.

Environmental concerns need to be addressed to make economic growth sustainable. Theories in the literature attempt to establish the relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation. These theories are not deterministic, as concepts like the inverted U-shaped or N-shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) have yielded different results for different economies. This study attempts to validate the shape of the EKC and simultaneously test for an asymmetric relationship between economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions. To achieve this, the study uses the simple and non-linear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) method on data from 1965 to 2021. The study finds evidence of an inverted U-shaped EKC but finds no evidence of an N-shaped EKC for India. Additionally, the study reports an asymmetric relationship between economic growth, energy consumption, and carbon dioxide emissions. Based on these findings, the study provides suitable policy recommendations.

The primary objective of this article is to estimate how the spike in oil prices has impacted Saudi Arabia’s output and other macroeconomic indicators. To address this question, the study utilizes a simple VAR estimation and VAR estimation with sign restrictions, specifically an oil demand shock and an oil supply shock, to determine the influence of oil price shocks. The study’s findings are consistent with conventional wisdom and current research from oil-exporting countries. Consistent with all model specifications for both periods (monthly 2010q1 to 2020q2 and quarterly 1996q1 to 2020q2), the study finds that an oil price shock benefits the Saudi Arabian economy. The results indicate that a 10% increase in oil prices leads to a 2% increase in output, a 0.15 percentage point increase in the consumer price index, a 6% increase in export value, and a 3% increase in import value. The study highlights the importance of considering both oil supply and demand shocks in analyzing the impact of oil price fluctuations and concludes that the demand shock is more influential than the supply shock.

This paper aims to assess whether the outbreak of the highly contagious pandemic had an impact on the share prices of recently listed Aramco in light of the Fads hypothesis using the methods of neural network and ARIMA. The IPO of Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, was a much-hyped affair. Given the relevant importance of the company, it was expected that Aramco's share prices would not underperform in the long run. But the analysis indicates the opposite. The study uses two time periods using the announcement of the pandemic by the World Health Organization as the threshold date to see the impact of the pandemic on Aramco’s share prices. The forecasting results validate the Fads hypothesis implying that Aramco’s share prices would have underperformed in the long run, even in the absence of a pandemic outbreak. Finally, the study cautions investors against the hype created by IPOs.

Economic growth and financial development are intrinsically related. Literature provides evidence that economic growth leads to financial development and financial development also leads to economic growth. The study analyzes this association between economic growth and financial development considering institutions for countries with substantial oil rents. The study uses the Pedroni test for cointegration, Granger causality, Ordinary Least Squares (Panel, Fully Modified, and Dynamic) methods to study the relationship on a panel data of six countries from 2000 to 2019. The study proceeds with the hypothesis that economic growth leads to financial development in countries having oil rents. The study finds that economic growth has a significant positive impact on the financial sector development of the GCC countries and not vice versa. The study also reports that poor institutional quality constraints the contribution of oil rents to financial development. The results imply that in countries accruing oil rent, the quality of institutions needs to be improved for furthering the cause of financial development. Although the study advances the empiricism on the link between economic growth and financial development, incorporating institutions and oil rents is the study’s novelty.

The interplay between oil rents, institution and economic growth is important for resource abundance economies as they are hypothesized to be suffering from ‘resource curse’, which denotes poor growth in the presence of abundant natural resource. The current paper aims to study the triptych relationship between economic growth, oil rents and institutions with an added dimension of sectoral contribution to growth. The Middle East and North African (MENA) region is an archetypal case of resource abundant region. Both the pattern of economic growth and institutional quality in the region is diverse and debatable. This study bases itself on 18 countries of the MENA region for the period 2004 to 2018, using various static and dynamic panel data methods including Arellano-Bond-Generalized Method of Moments. The main findings indicate that oil rents and institutions determine economic growth. We estimate two models: A first model relating GDP per capita with the sectoral shares on real value added and a second model relating GDP per capita with sectoral real values per capita. In the first model, the negative and insignificant effects of agriculture share, manufacturing share and service sectors share on GDP might indicate the relative unimportance of these sectors in the economies accruing oil rents, indicating the presence of a resource curse. In the second model, the level of industrial production per capita, positively related with Oil rents per capita, shows a positive and significant effect on real value added of Sectors and GDP per capita. These results confirm that oil rents per capita is not a curse but an important positive advantage for economic development. An important highlight of the result that differentiates this study with others is the positive impact of institutions. The study negates the presence of resource curse as oil rents are contributing positively to growth and concludes with the note that poor performance of some sectors in some countries in the MENA region is not exactly due to the quality of institutions; rather it is because of lack of diversification.

Expenditure on health is vital in the development of a country. Furthermore, the current COVID-19 pandemic emphasises the importance of health investments in maintaining a healthier economy worldwide. A substantial amount of empirical research on the relationship between health expenditure and economic growth yields conflicting results. The study intends to investigate the relationship between health spending and economic growth and institutions’ role in causing health spending to promote growth. 

The study uses longitudinal data to examine the relationship between health spending and economic growth in seven MENA countries from 2000 to 2017. The study uses the Phillips Perron (PP) Fisher chi-square stationarity test, indicating that the data series is not stationary. Following this, we used the Pedroni test for cointegration, and the results show long-run relationships between the variables. Next, Granger causality determines the direction of causality. Finally, panel data methods of panel ordinary least squares (Panel OLS), fully modified OLS (FMOLS), and dynamic OLS (DLOS) supplement the 

Foreign aid and remittances augment the income of economies. The present study examines the relationship between economic growth, poverty, inequality, remittances, and foreign aid in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries using panel data methods from 1991 to 2019. The study focuses on the MENA region due to the rise in labor immigration and significant foreign aid. The empirical findings reveal that remittances, foreign aid, and economic growth play a significant role in bringing down the MENA region’s poverty levels. Besides, a rise in income share accruing to the lowest quintile is observed despite the negative income growth, which indicates that on average, the income increased more rapidly of the poor in comparison to the non-poor households. Thus, the study finds evidence supporting the hypothesis that remittances and foreign aid augment per capita income and income share in the MENA member countries.

Females have an unfavourable position when it comes to being actively involved in the business. This unequal situation is no different for Saudi Arabia. The purpose of this study is to probe gender differences in entrepreneurial intention in Saudi Arabia. This study employs a primary survey based on the Theory of Planned Behavior to study the entrepreneurial intentions of female university students and see how it is different from their male counterparts. The study reports that there is no difference between the entrepreneurial intentions of female and male students. The study further reports that females have higher perceived behavioural control and lower attitude towards entrepreneurial intentions. Social norms do not significantly affect the formation of entrepreneurial intention for both males and females. An oil dominant country, Saudi Arabia is aggressively pushing for economic reforms to move away from oil and diversify it. It has also announced empowerment strategies for the women of the country. Improving the overall social acceptability of entrepreneurship may give females an advantage over males to contribute to the country's economic reform and growth process. The few existing studies on Saudi Arabia have not studied the differences in gender in terms of entrepreneurial intentions and their determinants. The study uses the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to explore the differences between male and female entrepreneurial intentions