Purpose-The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the impact of financial development on poverty reduction in Egypt. The paper also investigates whether financial development affects poverty via gross domestic product (GDP) growth. Design/methodology/approach-This study uses the autoregressive distributed lag approach to estimate two specifications. The first is dependent on poverty by the ratio domestic credit to the private sector (percentage of GDP) and the second is dependent on the poverty by the ratio liquid liabilities to GDP or M3/GDP. The data are annual and cover the period from 1980 to 2015. Findings-In long run, the study finds that relationship between economic growth and poverty is bidirectional. Financial development and poverty (household final consumption expenditure per capita) are complementary as bidirectional (in Granger sense). In short run, the study finds the bidirectional causality between financial development (real domestic credit to private sector per capita) and poverty reduction. Practical implications-The findings suggest that governments should remove policies that impede the ability of banks to offer loan products or undermine the commercial incentive structure for banks or borrowers. It is crucial to enhance the role of specialized state-owned banks in financial intermediation. Social implications-Several attempts have been made to investigate the relationship between financial development and other macroeconomic variables, but few studies have examined the impact of financial development on poverty reduction. Furthermore, the majority of the previous studies are based on Asia and Latin Americaaffording Egypt very little or no coverage at all.

This study aims to explore and evaluate the effects of economic growth, financial development, foreign direct investment, energy usage, population growth, trade-in service, and trade openness on carbon dioxide release in Egypt for the period 1977-2018. This study utilizes cointegration and structural break unit root techniques to investigate integrating features of the variables under examination and cointegration among those variables. The Toda-Yamamoto test is performed to test for causality among the variables. The unit root test, variance decomposition under the vector autoregressive (VAR) approach, impulse response function, and Granger causality under VAR environment have been applied to infer the short and long-run statistical dynamics. Empirical findings reveal that economic growth, energy usage, and total population may increase CO2 emissions. So, these factors are positively linked with environmental degradation. Besides, financial development and trade openness may improve environmental quality, as they significantly negatively affect CO2 emissions. Moreover, foreign direct investment and environmental degradation may cause each other in the Granger sense.

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This paper attempts to demonstrate the relationship between macroeconomic factors and each of Private Investment in Energy (PIE) and Private Investment in Telecoms (PIT) from 1990 to 2016 in 21 MENA countries (Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Palestine and Yemen). Results reveal that both PIE and PIT are Granger caused by GDP, Real Interest Rate, Gross fixed capital formation, private sector, stocks traded are Granger causing PIE. Also, Inflation, Exports of goods and services and Commercial bank branches are Granger causing PIT. All of the ten macroeconomic variables taken up in study are cointegrated with Investment in energy and telecoms with private participation in the long run. Besides, shocks to all of GDP, gross fixed capital formation, private sector to GDP, general government final consumption expenditure, stocks traded and commercial bank branches (as a proxy of financial inclusion) have a positive and statistically significant effect on the private investment in energy and telecoms.