Ruhul Salim
Curtin University, Economics & Finance, Faculty Member
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The objective of this study is to examine the role of technology development and self-reliance in oil production on China’s oil import function from 1986 to 2014. Using the autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL), we find that... more
The objective of this study is to examine the role of technology development and self-reliance in oil production on China’s oil import function from 1986 to 2014. Using the autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL), we find that technology development reduces oil imports in the long run. However, we find oil imports to be independent from self-reliance in the long run. We also find that the country’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) has significantly changed the nature of the cointegrating relationship in the oil import function. Our results suggest that government should continue to bolster incentives for adopting energysaving measures and fund research projects on viable alternatives to non-renewable energy sources such as oil. Furthermore, deregulation in oil market involving pricing and institutions (e.g. upgradation and expansion of refinery facilities, improve import-supporting logistics, etc.) is important for energy security and stable economic growth.
This article analyses the role of research and development (R&D) in Australia's broadacre farming by using the semi-parametric smooth coefficient model proposed by Hastie and Tibshirani (1993) and Li et al (2002) and a state-level... more
This article analyses the role of research and development (R&D) in Australia's broadacre farming by using the semi-parametric smooth coefficient model proposed by Hastie and Tibshirani (1993) and Li et al (2002) and a state-level dataset covering the period 1995 to 2007. While the conventional production function approach only captures the direct effects of R&D, this methodology captures both the direct impact of a change in R&D on output and the indirect impact through changes in efficiency of use of factor inputs in the production process. The empirical results show that once both the direct and indirect effects are taken into consideration, R&D investments significantly increase outputs. The results also show that there are substantial variations in the effects of R&D on output across the states. Such variations need to be taken into account when designing policies for investing public R&D in agriculture.
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This paper aims to investigate the effects of urbanization, renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, trade liberalization, and economic growth on pollutant emissions and energy intensity in selected Asian developing countries from... more
This paper aims to investigate the effects of urbanization, renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, trade liberalization, and economic growth on pollutant emissions and energy intensity in selected Asian developing countries from 1980 to 2010. We use both linear and nonlinear panel data econometric techniques and employ the recently introduced mean group estimation methods, allowing for heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence. However, to check robustness of our panel results, we also apply the autoregressive distributed lag bound testing approach to country-level data. In addition, the relationship between affluence and CO2 emissions is examined in the context of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. The estimation results identify population, affluence, and non-renewable energy consumption as the main factors in pollutant emissions in Asian countries. However, the results of the EKC hypothesis show that when countries achieve a certain level of economic gr...
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This article explores the potential economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis on China’s outward foreign direct investment (OFDI), especially that involving Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the Belt-Road countries. It also aims to... more
This article explores the potential economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis on China’s outward foreign direct investment (OFDI), especially that involving Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the Belt-Road countries. It also aims to understand the attitude of relevant stakeholders toward the performance of these SOEs in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region in relation to the current global health crisis. Applying the annual panel data regression from 2005–2020, we find statistically significant outcomes for the business environment in terms of Chinese OFDIs initiated in ASEAN countries. The first empirical results show that the global health pandemic can impair Chinese OFDIs. However, the strong annual growth and the connection between China and the ASEAN could eliminate the risks of the crisis that is impacting the Chinese OFDI in the region. This study conveys clear and useful suggestions for both governments and investors during these extremely turbulent and challenging times. The most important of these arises from our study’s conclusion that the two-way investments between China and the ASEAN under the One Belt One Road (OBOR) plan will remain strong and will become stronger. The support of the OBOR initiative is undiminished because most of the investment projects, such as energy and infrastructure, remain important to the ASEAN countries.
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Energy is one of the primary elements in human daily life. It is important, because it is used for cooking, lighting, and other business activities. However, it does not matter that energy poverty is connected to the electrical grid, and... more
Energy is one of the primary elements in human daily life. It is important, because it is used for cooking, lighting, and other business activities. However, it does not matter that energy poverty is connected to the electrical grid, and this topic remains focused on insufficient energy consumption. In many ways, this is due to the unaffordability of and inaccessibility to clean energy to support our daily essential needs, which may cause the deprivation of a household and affect its social wellbeing. This study investigates the incidence of energy poverty in China’s foreign aid countries. Our paper uses the latest panel data of selected countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) from 2000–2019 to investigate the impact of energy poverty on energy consumption, education, and the per capita income of households. The selected five nations are Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR), Indonesia, Myanmar, and the Philippines. Our empirical outcomes provide support for economic and social wellbeing policymakers in their decision-making. Our results indicate that the impact of energy poverty on these households’ wellbeing is significant. Energy poverty household members in these countries that receive foreign aid from China have a higher probability of suffering high energy costs, having a significant dropout rate from schools, and having the least number of opportunities to improve their income. Our findings reveal a significant impact of the Chinese foreign aid program, which helps reduce energy poverty in this region. We suggest that Chinese and ASEAN governments urgently need to implement effective policy measures that focus on the provision of clean and affordable energy to low-income households in these poor ASEAN states.
We study the effect of human capital on CO2 emissions using the Chinese provincial panel over the period 1997–2016. Allowing for cross-sectional dependence and structural breaks, we find a negative association between human capital and... more
We study the effect of human capital on CO2 emissions using the Chinese provincial panel over the period 1997–2016. Allowing for cross-sectional dependence and structural breaks, we find a negative association between human capital and CO2 emissions in the long run and attribute it to the influences from younger workers and workers with advanced human capital. In particular, our results suggest that a one-year increase in average schooling reduces CO2 emissions by 12 per cent. Using disaggregated emission dataset by energy sources and end emitters, we demonstrate this negative association is likely to manifest through technology effect and the improvement in energy efficiency. These manifestations are limited to production sector. Our finding suggests a promising avenue for abating greenhouse gases without impeding economic growth
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This article estimates technical and environmental efficiencies using the stochastic frontier analysis with panel data of twenty-two main apple production provinces in China during 1992–2014. Results show that the environmental efficiency... more
This article estimates technical and environmental efficiencies using the stochastic frontier analysis with panel data of twenty-two main apple production provinces in China during 1992–2014. Results show that the environmental efficiency for pesticide input alone has lower mean value of 0.337 than environmental efficiency for the two environmentally detrimental inputs, pesticide and chemical fertilizer, which is 0.782. Furthermore, all efficiency scores have decreasing trends over time. Loess Plateau is more environmentally efficient than the Bohai bay region. Results of output elasticities show that chemical fertilizer has a mean value of 0.225, which is higher than for material, labor, and pesticide input. Also, apple production in China experiences decreasing returns to scale. Finally, it is also discovered that labor and chemical fertilizer have a substitute relationship, while material and labor have a complementary relationship, as do chemical fertilizer and pesticide. The re...
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This study investigates the source of productivity growth in the Indonesian banking sector during 19 years from 1993 to 2011. The industry had been through several periods of reforms, starting from the radical deregulation in the late... more
This study investigates the source of productivity growth in the Indonesian banking sector during 19 years from 1993 to 2011. The industry had been through several periods of reforms, starting from the radical deregulation in the late 1980s, the restructuring period following the 1997 Asian financial crisis, to the consolidation period in the mid-2000s. Using panel data of 101 commercial banks, we explore productivity growth using Malmquist indices complemented with bootstrapping technique of Simar and Wilson (1999) to provide measures of the statistical precision of the results. The Malmquist index provides measures of total factor productivity, efficiency change and technological change. Results show the productivity is progressing moderately and appears to be less volatile towards the end of the period. Furthermore, technological change tends to be the main sources of productivity improvement rather than efficiency change.
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Purpose This paper aims to investigate the financial performance of listed firms on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) over two sample periods (1998-2007 and 2008-2010) before and during the global financial crisis periods.... more
Purpose This paper aims to investigate the financial performance of listed firms on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) over two sample periods (1998-2007 and 2008-2010) before and during the global financial crisis periods. Design/methodology/approach The generalized method of moments (GMM) has been used to examine the relationship between family ownership and a firm’s performance during the financial crisis period, reflecting on the higher risk exposure associated with capital markets. Findings Applying firm-based measures of financial performance (ROA and ROE), the empirical results show that family firms with ownership concentration performed better than nonfamily firms with dispersed ownership structures. The results also show that ownership concentration has a positive and significant impact on family- and nonfamily-owned firms during the crisis period. In addition, financial leverage had a positive and significant effect on the performance of Australian family-owned firm...
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This paper analyses the impact of urbanization and trade openness on emissions and energy intensity in twenty-two increasingly urbanized emerging economies. We employ three second-generation heterogeneous linear panel models as well as... more
This paper analyses the impact of urbanization and trade openness on emissions and energy intensity in twenty-two increasingly urbanized emerging economies. We employ three second-generation heterogeneous linear panel models as well as recently developed nonlinear panel estimation techniques allowing for cross-sectional dependence. The empirical results show that population density and affluence increase emissions and energy intensity while renewable energy seems to be dormant in these emerging economies, but non-renewable energy increases both CO2 emissions and energy intensity. In addition, openness significantly reduces both pollutant emissions and energy intensity whereas urbanization significantly increases energy intensity, but it is insignificant in increasing emissions. This may be, in part, due to the recent increasing trend in adopting cleaner technologies in these increasingly urbanized developing economies.
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The spillovers of foreign direct investment (FDI) on domestic firms’ performances have been highly debated for many years. This article contributes to this debate by analyzing spillovers effects on technical efficiency of Indonesian... more
The spillovers of foreign direct investment (FDI) on domestic firms’ performances have been highly debated for many years. This article contributes to this debate by analyzing spillovers effects on technical efficiency of Indonesian pharmaceutical sector using a unique unbalanced panel of highly disaggregated (at five-digit ISIC) 210 firms over the period 1990-1995 (1,001 observations). The Stochastic production frontier (SPF) and the Data envelopment analysis (DEA) based Malmquist productivity indices (MPI) have been used to test the spillovers effects of FDI on technical efficiency. The empirical results from the SPF show that foreign firms are more efficient than domestic competitors, and the presence of the former increases the inefficiency of the latter. Similarly the results from the MPI demonstrate that FDI has a negative and significant impact on technical efficiency changes in domestic competitors, but generate positive spillovers to domestic suppliers.
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Research Interests: Economics, Energy Economics, Macroeconomics, Applied Econometrics, Agricultural Economics, and 12 moreAgriculture, Energy and Environment, Applied Economics, Multidisciplinary, Trade Openness, Commodity prices, Commodity trade, Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Economics Of Natural Resources, Dynamic heterogeneous panels, Coorporate Finance, and Wiley
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This paper empirically assesses the integration of ASEAN with the European Union (EU) from an ASEAN-European Union trade model and investigates their untapped trade potential For the observation period of 1996 to 2008, the ASEANEU trade... more
This paper empirically assesses the integration of ASEAN with the European Union (EU) from an ASEAN-European Union trade model and investigates their untapped trade potential For the observation period of 1996 to 2008, the ASEANEU trade gap between the potential trade and the actual trade appears quite substantial This study opens up the scope for future study on the ASEAN-EU regional integration.
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ABSTRACT This article investigates the role of real exchange rates on the ASEAN integration process by using a VAR model estimated for each ASEAN member with data for 1960 through 2010. Empirical results show that there is substantial... more
ABSTRACT This article investigates the role of real exchange rates on the ASEAN integration process by using a VAR model estimated for each ASEAN member with data for 1960 through 2010. Empirical results show that there is substantial heterogeneity among the ASEAN economies and demonstrate no significant impact of real exchange rate shocks on ASEAN trade. The study suggests that the ASEAN common currency would not provide a trade benefits additional to those from the ongoing integration process.
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ABSTRACT The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is among several regional blocs that have received praise from economists for making significant progress towards developing intra- and extra-regional economic relationships.... more
ABSTRACT The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is among several regional blocs that have received praise from economists for making significant progress towards developing intra- and extra-regional economic relationships. However, opinions differ over the extent of ASEAN’s potential for integration. This paper reviews the performance of and prospects for the group’s intra- and extra-regional integration. It also reviews the performance of individual members in order to assess whether ASEAN integration could potentially lead to a monetary union in the future. We provide an overview of trade performance and a comparison of three macroeconomic variables: inflation; interest; and exchange rates. We observe that ASEAN members are in a favourable position to form a strong economic zone in the near future, but adopting a common monetary policy is less plausible.
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ABSTRACT This study investigates the regional pattern of ecological capital in Indonesia through the core principles of political economy. In this discourse, the gap between Biocapacity and Ecological Footprint in the regional level... more
ABSTRACT This study investigates the regional pattern of ecological capital in Indonesia through the core principles of political economy. In this discourse, the gap between Biocapacity and Ecological Footprint in the regional level (provinces) typically lead a crux problem that determines ecological capital sustainability. From this perspective, thus, a major hypothesis describes that unevenness in ecological capital patterns occur in Indonesian provinces as the gap of Biocapacity and Ecological Footprint is characteristically heterogeneous. In order to demonstrate this hypothesis, this study employs three main analyses. The first analysis is to examine the gap between Biocapacity and Ecological Footprint in Indonesian provinces. It is followed by the second analysis that the regional pattern of ecological capital is scrutinized by the principles of political economy, which are principle of Hegemony, principle of Circular and Cumulative Causation (CCC) and principle of Contradiction. In the third analysis, several results of the second analysis is likely to be utilized for promoting several relevant outcome policies that link to ecological capital sustainability in Indonesia.