The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of remittances outflows on inflation for a panel of 14 OPEC countries during the period 1980-2018. Using bias-corrected least-squares dummy variable (CLSDV) estimator, empirical results reveal that remittance outflows have no effect on inflation rate. However, trade openness and current account deficits have a positive impact on inflation. Further, oil price appears to not have any effect on inflation in OPEC countries.

This study empirically investigates the existence of twin deficits—the impact of fiscal policy on the current account—among selected major oil-exporting countries. Given the huge effects of the oil proceeds on these economies, the study separates the effects of oil on the fiscal balance from its effect on the current account balance. The investigation took a further step by grouping these countries—based on their fiscal policy actions over the period of years under review—into pro-cyclical and counter-cyclical fiscal countries. In line with the existing literature, the impact of fiscal balance on the current account balance takes into consideration the contemporaneous effects brought about by exchange rate fluctuations, the growth in GDP, rate of openness and the growth in money supply. The models are estimated based on a panel of 31 oil-exporting countries over the period 1984–2013, using the two-stage least squares estimation techniques. The results from all countries estimations reveal the existence of twin-deficit in the total economy. In the non-oil economy, on the other hand, the evidence of twin-deficit disappears. This evidence is also reported in the counter-cyclical fiscal countries. Results from pro-cyclical fiscal countries indicated the total opposite, revealing the existence of twin-deficit in the non-oil economy, while this evidence does not occur in the total economy. The indisputable conclusion is that oil dominance continues to blur the existence of twin deficits among the oil-exporting countries.

We characterize the dynamic network structure of major oil producing countries. We examine the oil production coordination of 13 Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and 17 non-OPEC members. We construct the dynamic network structure using the network connectedness measure of Diebold and Yilmaz (2009). We investigate the structural changes in connectedness of OPEC and non-OPEC members. Additionally, we study how the influence of OPEC members, non-OPEC countries and major oil producers evolve. We find that the network structure of major oil-producing countries changes significantly over time. Specifically, the impact of changes in oil-production of all OPEC members on global oil production declines, whereas the impact of non-OPEC on global oil production increases. OPEC's “increase” decisions have a significant and positive impact on OPEC and non-OPEC coordination. However, “cut” decisions do not affect coordination. We find that OPEC countries and developing countries have significantly higher levels of connectedness. Additionally, countries with high oil production levels have significantly more influence. The empirical results provide intuition about the recent developments in global oil production.

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between financial sector development and economic growth taking into consideration the role of institutions quality. Our sample is on a group of 143 countries observed during the period of 2006-2013. The sample is dived into 100 developing and 43 developed countries. Using structural GMM the paper shows that financial sector plays a crucial role in economic development and growth for the whole sample as well as for developed and developing countries. However, the results show that unlike developing countries, developed countries enjoyed the presence of proper institutions in their countries which in turn have contributed further to the development of their financial sector.