This research examines the effect of energy efficiency regulations on reducing energy poverty in residential dwellings in 18 municipalities of the Lisbon metropolitan area from 2014 to 2020. In its empirical investigation, this study uses Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) with fixed effects and Moments Quantile Regression (MM-QR) methodologies. The results of the OLS and MM-QR models suggest that energy efficiency regulations for the residential sector positively impact energy poverty (101.9252). However, this result may suggest that the current regulations are not effectively mitigating energy poverty in Lisbon’s metropolitan area and Portugal. This ineffectiveness could be due to economic, institutional, and behavioural barriers that impede the achievement of regulation policy goals. In maximising economic and social benefits, policymakers should consider implementing policies that link energy efficiency with clean energy generation in dwellings, promote economies of scale by recycling residuals from dwelling renovations, and provide clear guidance for materialising the energy strategy.

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In this paper, we investigate the macroeconomic, demographic and institutional factors affecting the probability of growth slowdown in upper-middle-income countries within the framework of the growth slowdown methodology developed by Eichengreen et al. (2011). To do so, we use probit regression, and the dataset covers the period 1980-2015. The results show that growth slowdown occurs when per capita income reaches 22 percent of that in the United States. Besides, an increase in the relative income, gross capital formation, trade openness, years of total schooling, old dependency ratio and law and order index increases the risk of growth slowdown, whereas an increase in public debt, inflation variability and years of secondary and higher schooling decreases the risk of growth slowdown.

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This paper investigates the impact of globalization on the ecological footprint for 130 countries over the period 1980-2016. To do so, we follow a two-step procedure. First, we analyze convergence in ecological footprint and identify possible convergence clubs across countries using a novel approach proposed by Phillips and Sul (2007). Then, we investigate the impact of globalization on ecological footprint using panel FMOLS (Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares) and panel DOLS (Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares) methods. The results show that globalization is significantly and positively related to the ecological footprint both for the full panel sample and for all convergence clubs. However, the impact of globalization on ecological footprint significantly varies across convergence clubs and full panel sample. Furthermore, the findings show that the convergence club with the lowest impact of globalization on the ecological footprint is the closest club to the panel average.