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The current research aims to investigate the impact of coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) evolution, government stringency measures and economic resilience on stock market volatility in the Middle East and North African (MENA) emerging markets. Other macroeconomic factors were also taken into account.

Based on financial data from 10 selected MENA countries, we tested an integrated framework that has not yet been explored in prior research. The exponential generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (E-GARCH) was adopted to analyze data from March 2020 to February 2022.

Our research illustrates the direct and indirect effects of the virus outbreak on stock market stability and reports that economic resilience could alleviate the volatility shock. This finding is robust across the various proxies of economic resilience used in this study. We also argue that the negative impact of the pandemic on equity market variation gets more pronounced in countries with higher level of stringency scores.

Policymakers ought to strengthen their economic structures and reinforce the economic governance at the national level to gain existing and potential investors’ trust and ensure lower stock market volatilities in times of crisis. Our study also recommends some key economic factors to consider while establishing efficient policies to tackle unexpected shocks and prevent financial meltdowns.

Our findings add to the evolving literature on the reaction of economic and financial markets to the sanitary crisis, particularly in developing countries where research is still scarce. This study is the first of its kind to investigate the stock market reaction to stringency measures in the understudied MENA region.

The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of economic factors on foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into Asian region before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study used the generalized method of moments (GMM) technique to examine the impact of economic growth, domestic investment and trade openness on FDI in the Asian region, in two periods from 1996 to 2018 and from 2019 to 2020.

In the pre-COVID-19 period, the estimated result shows that the economic growth, domestic investment, imports and exports positively impact FDI. In the post-COVID-19 period, the FDI is influenced by the strength of the economic characteristics of the region. The main findings indicate that economic growth has a positive and significant effect on FDI inflows into Asia. The findings also show that the economic resilience to attract FDI in Asia is significantly affected by economic growth and positively affected by trade openness and government responses during the pandemic.

The study suggests the Asian governments increasing the domestic investment and improving the quality of trade openness.

Based on the research of free trade agreements on alleviating service trade policy heterogeneity and its impact on manufacturing exports, this article aims to not only provide a basis for China's strategy of promoting regional economic integration, but also provide a policy reference for the manufacturing industry to expand the export market space.

This study uses the two principles of “answering” and “scoring” to quantify the indicators of service trade policy heterogeneity to test the relationship between heterogeneity of service trade policy, free trade agreement and manufacturing export.

According to empirical study, the export of Chinese manufacturing firms is severely hampered by the variety of service trade regulations, and the bigger the enterprise, the more hampered it is. In comparison to communications, transport and commerce, the financial industry's policy heterogeneity has a greater negative impact on certain industries. The major methods used to reduce the impact of service trade policy heterogeneity on manufacturing exports are product price increases and product quantity reductions. Also, by reducing the heterogeneity of service trade regulations and fostering industrial exports, the free trade agreement that China has signed can be quite successful. The open commitment in the area of national treatment, however, can reduce policy heterogeneity and advance manufacturing.

In the area of market access, the effect of export is superior to the open promise. Thus, in order to effectively support the stabilization of international trade, China should actively encourage the negotiation and signing of higher-quality and mutually beneficial free trade agreements.

Notwithstanding the Geographical Information System (GIS) being a fast-emerging green area of a digital revolution, the available studies focus on different subject areas of application in the construction industry, with no study that clarifies its knowledge strands. Hence, this systematic review analyses GIS core area of application, its system integration patterns, challenges and future directions in the construction industry.

A systematic review approach was employed, using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) checklist. A total of 60 articles published between 2011 and 2022 were identified, thoroughly reviewed and analysed using thematic analysis.

The analysis revealed spatial planning and design, construction-task tracking, defect detection and safety monitoring as its four main application-based areas. The findings showed that the adoption of GIS technology is rapidly expanding and being utilised more in building projects to visual-track construction activities. The review discovered an integrated pattern involving data flow from a device and window-form application to GIS, the pathways to data exchange between platforms to platforms, where ArcGIS is the most used software. Furthermore, the study highlighted the lack of interoperability between heterogeneous systems as the crux impediment to adopting GIS in the built environment.

The research provides a deep insight into possible areas where GIS is adopted in the construction industry, identifying areas of extensive and limited application coverage over a decade. Besides, it demystifies possible pathways for future integration opportunities of GIS with other emerging technologies within the construction industry.

Mangrove forests are one of the most bio-diverse and productive wetland environments on earth. However, these unique tropical forest environments that occupy coastal areas are among the most threatened habitats globally. These threats include logging, conversion of land for agriculture and mariculture and degradation due to pollution over the past 50 years. The large population of resilient mangroves occupying the Turneffe Atoll area in Belize faces growing anthropogenic threats such as permanent clearing of land for housing, infrastructural development and pollution and natural factors (climate change). Given the few formal studies done to evaluate mangrove resilience at Turneffe Atoll, the purpose of this study was to evaluate mangrove resilience and nursery functions in the Turneffe Atoll Marine Reserve (TAMR).

Mangrove fish abundance and forest structure was assessed by means of a visual census and the point-centred quarter method (PCQM) for 11 sites that span across conservation and general use zones.

This study found that the more resilient mangroves (lower vulnerability ranks, higher standing biomass and higher fish biomass and abundance) exist in general use zones and warrant the need for improved mangrove conservation measures for these areas by Turneffe Atoll Sustainability Association (TASA).

Limitations of the methods for data collection included accessibility within mangrove forests stands when establishing PCQM, observer bias among data collectors, sites without surrounding mangroves were not captured to serve as a true control group and poor visibility underwater affected the estimation of fish species and size. The timeline for this research was only three months based on available funding, and no follow-up study was done to make a true comparison.

The findings of this research have a guiding role in the formulation of conservation measures such as better waste management, a robust framework for mangrove management, a communication strategy to guide public awareness and long-term monitoring surveys.

The moderating role of digital services trade restrictiveness to the effects of national intellectual capital on economic growth has been largely ignored in the existing literature. As such, this paper aims to examine how national intellectual capital and digital services trade restrictiveness affect economic growth. In addition, the moderating role of digital services trade restrictiveness in the relationship between national intellectual capital and economic growth is also examined.

In this study, a sample comprising 62 countries worldwide is used. The national intellectual capital for each country is computed using the index of national intellectual capital. Data pertaining to digital services trade restrictiveness are extracted from the digital services trade restrictiveness index (OECD Statistics on International Trade in Services database). To ensure the robustness of the findings, the generalized method of moments (GMM) is used in the analysis.

The findings of this study confirm that national intellectual capital supports economic growth. Accumulating intellectual capital at the national level plays an essential role in supporting economic growth. The authors also find evidence to confirm that digital services trade restrictiveness negatively affects economic growth, particularly for high-income and lower-middle-income countries. Interestingly, digital services trade restrictiveness deteriorates economic growth across countries globally, except for upper-middle-income countries, with a weak effect. The empirical results also confirm that the joint effects between national intellectual capital and digital services trade restrictiveness are negative and significant. As such, findings from our analysis suggest that digital services trade restrictiveness moderates the relationship between national intellectual capital and economic growth.

The findings of this study provide valuable implications for policymakers to formulate and implement policies aiming to improve national intellectual capital to support sustainable economic growth. In addition, limiting digital services trade restrictiveness across countries appears to provide both direct and indirect effects in enhancing sustainable economic growth.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study conducted to examine the moderating role of digital services trade restrictiveness on the national intellectual capital – economic growth nexus.