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  • Publication
    Regulation of Green Finance: A Need or a burden
    (2022)
    Jamal, Mohamad Marwan
    The current climate change and environmental degradation pushed many countries to commit to reducing their carbon emissions and embracing a sustainable green economy. Admitting that finance is a powerful tool for shaping a healthy sustainable economy, governments, regulators, and central banks initiated financial system adjustments (some of them are major reforms) to support the transition to a green economy. These adjustments introduced new concepts to financial regulation in order to support the implementation of green finance and avoid market distortion or tax evasion. On the other hand, companies, banks and financial markets are self-aware and selfcommitted to environmental issues and they are already leading the development of green finance without the need for of legislative or regulatory intervention. However, can we trust them in their commitment towards green finance? This thesis helps in clarifying the nexus between financial regulation and maintaining a green sustainable economy. In its first part, this thesis clarifies the literature on green finance. The second part assesses the evolution of the regulatory and legislative frameworks of green finance mainly in European Union. The conclusion aims to respond to the question of whether the evolution of green finance regulation represent a support or a burden to achieving a green sustainable economy, or it is still too early to decide especially after the Ukrainian war.
  • Publication
    Investigating the User Perception of Digital Currency’s Economic and Legal aspects and its Impact on their Intention to Use
    (2022)
    Al Marar, Alyazia
    Based on the unprecedented changes in the financial industry led by innovative digital payment solutions, there have been numerous fraudulent cases surrounding cryptocurrencies and assets where investors have lost millions. In the face of such a crisis, the central bank of developing and developed economies has stepped up to launch digital currency protected through their regulatory framework for safe payment options. The extensive research around central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) has covered most economies from the western and Asian regions. However, the lack of research in the Middle East laid the ground for the current research to investigate the user perception and intention to use CBDC based on its economic and legal aspects. The study focuses on UAE and concludes that factors like safety and security (legal characteristics), inflation and transaction cost (economic aspects) are significant in creating a positive user perception. Hence the central bank of UAE should take into consideration such factors while devising the policy framework for digital currencies.
  • Publication
    Impact of Digital Banks on Conventional Banks in the UAE
    (2022)
    Schoeib, Karim
    The rise of challenger banks and fintechs have threatened the longevity of conventional, incumbent banks in the UAE. As consumers rapidly adopted digital products and services during the COVID-19 pandemic, a new era of disruption began in the banking sector, marked by the ever-changing capabilities of technology and the increased demands of the consumer. In the wake of the pandemic and wave of disruption, conventional banks must reevaluate their priorities and offerings. Academic literature indicates that the buy vs build paradigm, talent scarcity, role of regulatory authorities, and organizational structure are key variables to be addressed when transitioning to become digitally relevant and resilient. This research employs qualitative methods in determining the sentiments of bank leadership as well as the current strategic directions of the leading 10 conventional banks in the UAE attempting to compete with digital challengers. Results indicate that larger banks are able to withstand the competition for now; however, none of the sampled banks are actively enacting complete organizational structure changes. Though conventional banks are surviving in an immediate, post-pandemic landscape, their failure to address organizational structure changes away from complex hierarchies and product-oriented processes will likely diminish their survivability among digital banking competitors in the long term.
  • Publication
    Impact of Covid-19 on Profitability of Banks in UAE and France: Trends, Issues and Determinants
    (2022)
    Alameri, Suhail
    The Covid-19 pandemic had a major impact on the profitability of banking industry and has resulted in the decline of many economic activities across the globe. This research paper attempts to examine the impact of the pandemic on the profitability of the banks within the UAE and France. The lack of research in this area spurs curiosity and begs for further investigation to understand the extent of the possible impact on banks’ profitability. A comparative assessment of profitability model has been examined to explain the cross-section of banks profitability in relation to the bank specific variables. Panel data models such as fixed effect model and Random effect model have been used to observe the bank specific effect. `The results shows that bank specific factors including total assets, loan loss provision, non-interest income, capital ratio, efficiency ratio have an impact on profitability indicators of banks in UAE and France. Impact of pandemic on bank profitability is higher in France compared to UAE suggesting that Banks in UAE are more resilient in managing external economic shocks.
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  • Publication
    The Late Holocene evolution of the Black Sea – a critical view on the so-called Phanagorian regression
    (2012) ;
    Porotov, Alexey
    ;
    Kelterbaum, Daniel
    ;
    Brückner, Helmut
    ;
    Dikarev, Vassily
    ;
    Lericolais, Gilles
    Throughout its geologic history, the Black Sea experienced major sea level changes accompanied by severe environmental modifications, including geomorphologic reshaping. The most spectacular changes were driven by the Quaternary glaciations and deglaciations that reflect responses to Milankovitch cycles of 100 and 20 ky periodicity. Major sea level changes were also considered for a shorter and more recent cyclicity. The concept of the Phanagorian re- and transgression cycle, supposedly with a minimum sea level stand of 5-6 m below its present position in the middle of the 1 st millennium BC, was established in 1963 by Fedorov for the Black Sea region. It was based on archaeological and palaeogeographical research conducted around the ancient Greek colonies of the Cimmerian Bosporus, in particular at the name giving site of Phanagoria, where underwater prospection had revealed the presence of a large number of submerged relics of the Classical Greek era. Analyses of sediment cores as well as 14C-dated fossil coastal bars in the western and southern parts of Taman Peninsula show that contemporary coastal bars are related to different sea levels. The dissymmetry can reach up to 6 m around 500 BC. This and more evidence from drill cores confirms that on Taman Peninsula many of the apparent sea level changes are tectonically induced. The subsidence may have been initiated by the release of gas from mud volcanoes inherited along anticline axes. Other observations around the Black Sea confirm that submerged archaeological sites correspond to areas where subsidence has taken places, while the so-called Holocene highstand - said to have been located above the present-day sea level - is associated with uplift areas (triggered by the ongoing Caucasus orogeny). Recent oceanographic research carried out in the Black Sea area shows that since the Black Sea was reconnected with the Mediterranean Sea (i.e., 7500 14C BP at the latest), both marine water bodies have been in equilibrium. This fact and arguments from archaeology, history, hydrodynamics etc. lead us to question the existence of the Phanagorian regression. It is important to note that none of the sea level curves established for the (eastern) Mediterranean shows a comparable regression/transgression cycle of several metres during the 1 st millennium BC.
    Scopus© Citations 29  1046  76
  • Publication
    Non-linear relationship between real commodity price volatility and real effective exchange rate: The case of commodity-exporting countries
    (2019) ;
    Guillaumin, Cyriac
    ;
    Silanine, Alexandre
    The aim of this paper is to contribute to the existing literature by exploring the relationship between the real commodity price volatilities and the real effective exchange rate (REER) of commodity-exporting countries, taking into account the transition variable of financial market integration. To this end, we consider a sample of 42 commodity-exporting countries subdivided into 4 panels: food and beverages, energy, metals, and raw materials. Our results highlight that the relationship between real commodity price volatility and REER is non-linear and depends on the degree of financialization of the commodity market. Specifically, when a country is poorly integrated financially, the volatility of the real commodity price has a strong and negative impact on the variation in REER. However, for periods when a country is better integrated financially, we observe a decrease in the impact of real commodity price volatility on REER, especially for the two panels of food and beverages as well as energy. Our findings also highlight the growth of financialization of commodities post-2000, particularly in the case of the energy sector.
    Scopus© Citations 19  851
  • Publication
    Coral Reefs of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates: Analysis of Management Approaches in Light of International Best Practices and a Changing Climate
    (2020) ;
    Perry, Richard John Obrien
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    Al Blooshi, Ayesha Yousef
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    Ghedira, Hosni
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    Jabado, Rima W.
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    Marpu, Prashanth Reddy
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    Ouarda, Taha B. M. J.
    ;
    Grandcourt, Edwin Mark
    The coasts and islands that flank Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates (UAE)’s largest emirate, host the country’s most significant coastal and marine habitats including coral reefs. These reefs, although subject to a variety of pressures from urban and industrial encroachment and climate change, exhibit the highest thresholds for coral bleaching and mortality in the world. By reviewing and benchmarking global, regional and local coral reef conservation efforts, this study highlights the ecological importance and economic uniqueness of the UAE corals in light of the changing climate. The analysis provides a set of recommendations for coral reef management that includes an adapted institutional framework bringing together stakeholders, scientists, and managers. These recommendations are provided to guide coral reef conservation efforts regionally and in jurisdictions with comparable environmental challenges.
    Scopus© Citations 3  801  67
  • Publication
    The globalization of social sciences? Evidence from a quantitative analysis of 30 years of production, collaboration and citations in the social sciences (1980-2009)
    (SAGE Publications Ltd, 2014) ;
    Gingras, Y.
    This article addresses the issue of internationalization of social sciences by studying the evolution of production (of academic articles), collaboration and citations patterns among main world regions over the period 1980-2009 using the SSCI. The results confirm the centre-periphery model and indicate that the centrality of the two major regions that are North America and Europe is largely unchallenged, Europe having become more important and despite the growing development of Asian social sciences. The authors' quantitative approach shows that the growing production in the social sciences but also the rise of international collaborations between regions have not led to a more homogeneous circulation of the knowledge produced by different regions, or to a substantial increase in the visibility of the contributions produced by peripheral regions. Social scientists from peripheral regions, while producing more papers in the core journals compiled by the SSCI, have a stronger tendency to cite journals from the two central regions, thus losing at least partially their more locally embedded references, and to collaborate more with western social scientists. In other words, the dynamic of internationalization of social science research may also lead to a phagocytosis of the periphery into the two major centers, which brings with it the danger of losing interest in the local objects specific to those peripheral regions. © The Author(s) 2013.
    Scopus© Citations 80  719  100