Vishal Dagar
57218885592
Publications - 7
SDG adoption and firm risk: The impact of ESG performance, investor confidence, and agency cost
Publication Name: International Review of Economics and Finance
Publication Date: 2025-07-01
Volume: 101
Issue: Unknown
Page Range: Unknown
Description:
This study investigates the nexus between firm-level Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) adoption and firm risk using a unique dataset of National Stock Exchange (NSE) 500 companies from 2019 to 2024. It constructs a novel SDG adoption index to assess this relationship and reveals a noteworthy reduction in firm risk associated with SDG adoption. The results remain robust after a battery of robustness checks, including endogeneity concerns using 2SLS IV and system GMM and sample selection bias through Heckman's two-stage methods. Furthermore, the mechanism test indicates that SDG adoption reduces firm risk by enhancing investor confidence, improving ESG performance, and reducing agency costs. In addition, heterogeneity analyses demonstrate that the impact is more accentuated for enterprises with higher information asymmetry, higher board gender diversity, and non-state ownership. The results carry significant implications for investors, corporations, and policymakers seeking to mitigate risk and foster sustainable practices, particularly within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and emerging markets.
Open Access: Yes
Geopolitical instability and environmental sustainability
Publication Name: Environmental Economics and Policy Studies
Publication Date: 2026-01-01
Volume: 28
Issue: 1
Page Range: 445-471
Description:
Geopolitical instability significantly impacts environmental sustainability, yet its role remains underexplored. This study investigates how geopolitical risk affects ecological footprints and carbon emissions, key proxies for environmental sustainability, using panel data from 27 countries (1990–2020). Panel quantile regression results show a significant relationship between increased geopolitical risk, ecological footprints, and carbon emissions, with coefficients ranging from 0.357 to 0.785 across quantiles in the case of ecological footprints and 0.939–1.961 for carbon emissions. We control the estimation for inflows of foreign direct investment, economic growth, environmental patents, stringency, trade, and population. Economic growth correlates with a decrease in environmental sustainability, while environmental sustainability demonstrates an inverse relationship with ecological footprint and carbon emissions. The findings have policy implications because they can guide policymakers to take risks emanating from geopolitical uncertainty, while formulating environmental policies. Moreover, addressing increased environmental innovation and enhancing coverage of carbon taxes can help maintain environmental sustainability.
Open Access: Yes
Climate change dynamics for global energy security and equity: Evidence from policy stringency drivers
Publication Name: Journal of Environmental Management
Publication Date: 2024-11-01
Volume: 370
Issue: Unknown
Page Range: Unknown
Description:
This study investigates the dynamic interplay between financial integration, political stability, infrastructure, and global integration in enhancing Energy Security (ES) and Energy Equity (EE) across 50 economies from 2006 to 2018. It addresses gaps in understanding how socio-economic, political, and technological factors collectively influence ES and EE during the global transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. The research aims to reveal the complex relationships and potential trade-offs between energy sustainability, economic growth, and equitable energy distribution. Utilizing robust panel data methods including System GMM, Fixed Effects, and Random Effects, the study examines the impacts of various determinants on ES and EE. The dataset includes annual observations on global integration, financial integration, infrastructure quality, political stability, and other relevant metrics from diverse global sources. The findings reveal that increased financial integration significantly enhances ES by easing capital flow into energy infrastructure, which is crucial for stable energy supply chains. Political stability also positively affects ES, underscoring the importance of stable governance in sustaining energy policies. Conversely, rapid urban growth and inadequate social integration pose challenges to achieving EE, highlighting disparities in energy access worsened by urbanization. Technological advancements and digital connectivity appear as positive drivers for EE, enhancing the efficiency and distribution of energy resources. This study contributes to the literature by providing a detailed examination of how integration into global financial and political systems affects energy strategies at a national level. It offers valuable insights for policymakers on fostering environments conducive to sustainable energy development and fair energy access. The research underscores the importance of incorporating socio-economic and technological advancements in energy policy frameworks to achieve balanced growth and sustainability. Future research directions include exploring the causal relationships and long-term impacts of these factors on ES and EE, particularly in the context of evolving global energy policies and technological advancements.
Open Access: Yes
US financial stress, regional spillovers, and global economic policy uncertainty
Publication Name: Finance Research Letters
Publication Date: 2026-02-01
Volume: 89
Issue: Unknown
Page Range: Unknown
Description:
We study how financial stress originating in the United States (US), Advanced Economies (ADV), and Emerging Markets (EM) relates to movements in Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU). Using monthly data for 2000-2024, we estimate horizon-specific responses to ΔEPU to one-standard-deviation innovations in ΔFinancial Stress Index (FSI) via Jordà (2005) local projections with four lags and standard controls ΔBloomberg Commodity Index (BCOM), ΔFederal Funds Rate (FEDFUNDS), ΔU.S. Dollar Index (DollarIdx), ΔCBOE Volatility Index (VIX). Across regions, the impact coefficient is negative,indicating that stress shocks are associated with an immediate reduction in the month-over-month change of EPU. Beyond impact, responses are small in magnitude, yielding limited persistence; cumulative effects over six months are modest and typically encompassed by wide confidence bands. Taken together, the evidence suggests that policy-uncertainty index adjusts quickly to stress realizations, with little systematic propagation at monthly horizons. This transience is most consistent with information/communication channels whereby policy guidance and rapid market repricing compress subsequent uncertainty innovations, while allowing for regional heterogeneity.
Open Access: Yes
Economic sustainability and institutional quality in the green energy transition: Evidence from developing economies
Publication Name: International Economics
Publication Date: 2026-03-01
Volume: 185
Issue: Unknown
Page Range: Unknown
Description:
This study examines whether renewable energy adoption unconditionally contributes to economic outcomes in developing countries, or whether it can, under certain institutional conditions, impede economic progress. Analyzing panel data from 45 developing countries (2000–2020) using Driscoll–Kraay standard errors, we find a statistically significant negative association between an increasing renewable energy share and both GDP growth and GDP per capita. Crucially, institutional quality plays a pivotal moderating role. While stronger institutions, such as control of corruption and rule of law, mitigate negative impacts on per capita income and employment, they paradoxically appear to exacerbate the negative effect on overall GDP growth, suggesting a more transparent internalization of transition costs in better-governed environments. Furthermore, our findings demonstrate significant heterogeneity across income levels: low-income countries experience positive economic effects from renewable energy adoption, whereas lower-middle-income countries face more pronounced negative impacts. These results challenge the uniformly positive narrative of green growth, underscoring that the energy transition involves significant economic trade-offs critically dependent on a nation's institutional framework and developmental stage. Policymakers must adopt context-specific strategies to navigate these complexities effectively.
Open Access: Yes
Climate risk spillovers and financial tail-events: Evidence from quantile analysis
Publication Name: Research in International Business and Finance
Publication Date: 2026-05-01
Volume: 85
Issue: Unknown
Page Range: Unknown
Description:
This study investigates the dynamic and asymmetric connectedness between four crude oil benchmarks (Brent, WTI, INE, Murban) and three climate risk indexes (Physical Risk Index, Transition Risk Index, and U.S. Climate Policy Uncertainty Index). Addressing a critical gap in the literature, which often relies on linear models and average connectedness, we employ the quantile-on-quantile connectedness method to capture non-linear, asymmetric, and state-dependent spillovers, particularly under extreme market conditions. Our analysis reveals that climate risk indexes are predominantly net receivers of shocks from oil markets, with connectedness intensifying sharply during periods of market stress, political conflict, or sudden climate events. The findings highlight that systemic risk is significantly elevated at extreme quantiles, demonstrating that linear models may substantially underestimate true systemic risk during critical junctures. Methodologically, this research demonstrates the efficacy of quantile-on-quantile connectedness in revealing tail-risk effects. Empirically, it provides the most comprehensive comparison to date of connectedness across diverse crude oil benchmarks and climate risk indexes. The results offer crucial insights for investors seeking resilient portfolios, and for policymakers and regulators in designing macro-prudential oversight frameworks that recognize the non-linear and state-dependent nature of climate-financial contagion, emphasizing the need for flexible policies and continuous monitoring.
Open Access: Yes
Energy poverty dynamics and geostrategic shocks: Moderation of financial markets
Publication Name: Energy Policy
Publication Date: 2026-08-01
Volume: 215
Issue: Unknown
Page Range: Unknown
Description:
Universal energy poverty is a key ingredient to social inequality, education barrier and poor health outcome. Therefore, it is crucial for policymakers to identify the factors that mitigates energy poverty. Present study examined the influence of geopolitical risk on energy poverty, focusing on financial market depth, access and efficiency in 42 economies, spanning 2000 to 2022, using instrument variable two stage least square (2SLS), three stage least square (3SLS) approach and double panel threshold regression. The estimation provides following observations. First, geopolitical risk significantly intensify energy poverty over time. Second, natural disasters is a more serious hindrance to energy access. Third, financial markets significantly moderates the favourable spillover effects of geopolitical risk on energy poverty, dampens negative effect of geopolitical risk, improving household energy access, and reducing vulnerability to external shocks. Alongside this, the research provide similar pattern in urban and rural concentration, indicating the severe effect of geopolitical and natural disaster risk in rural areas. Moreover, the research explored several other factors and prioritizes digitalization, economic growth and political liberty as the major attributes for mitigating energy poverty. Hence, this research, provides stronger support for the roles of financial markets and digitalization in mitigating the energy poverty in the long run. This paper further delves into the policy implications arising from the findings.
Open Access: Yes
