Project 1:

Title of the project:

Performance period:   2021 -2024

Role: Principal Investigator and Lead of WR 2 and WP 5.

Number of Co-Investigators: 6 + Post Doc + Graduate and undergraduate students

Name of Funding Agency: Qatar Foundation, Qatar

Funded amount:    $599,269  (NPRP13S-0206-200272)

Abstract:

Qatar like most of other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries is experiencing a technology-driven transformation towards a low-carbon and energy-efficient built environment. This was reflected in different government initiatives and efforts to promote and adopt the use of renewables energies to encourage the development of low carbon smart cities by intensively investing in ICT-based solutions (e.g. Lusail city in Qatar). This push is a part of a highly publicized (and controversial in academic literature) efforts to reshape urban development through megaprojects, centralized master planning and westernized approaches conveying modernism and global affluence. However, this is often contrasted with the conservative societies of the region, the large consumption footprints and the preferences of local people towards large and isolated residential houses (rather than high-rise buildings or congested high-tech cities). In this context, the idea of (smart and) connected communities that develop synergies through the use of technology and infrastructure is technically feasible and relevant for Qatar and the region. However, this idea poses several questions with regard to the premise of ‘community’ and the associated social and economic aspects such as coherence, privacy, acceptability, affordability and types of incentives that help to switch toward 100% renewable energy production and use.

Community energy (CE) is one possible strategy in transition to zero-carbon energy. CE is a way of transforming the community to a zero-carbon energy system and hence focuses mainly on the participation of local community members. Globally, this strategy has gained increasing attention particularly in the United States, Australia, Germany, United Kingdom, and Denmark [1]. CE is an opportunity to offer energy initiatives as an alternative to traditional energy systems by and for local people [2-3]. CE projects bring collective benefits to a local community and are driven and carried by a group of people in this community. The outcomes of the CE mainly depends on different assumptions about processes such as decision-making, participation, and ownership, access to affordable energy, improved social capital, community empowerment, knowledge and skill development, energy literacy and environmentally lifestyles, socio-economic regeneration, and increased local support for renewable energy [4-5]. The evidence supporting the theoretical assumptions of benefits to the local community is mainly anecdotal [4]. However, despite these theoretical assumptions, there is a need for more of systematic and comparative empirical research investigations on how such benefits actually accrue [5]. These investigations should focus on the social, economic, and technological factors that can ensure the sustainable transition to zero-carbon rather than focusing on factors effecting uptake and successful implementation.

A defining feature of CE is how communities participate in energy developments. The CE offers alternatives to traditional energy systems and it takes in consideration-engaging citizens’ active participation in energy production, delivery, and consumption as well as their policy perceptions [5]. CE involves open participatory practices that are built on community members’ involvement which is consider useful because it includes a more comprehensive evidence- based depending on diverse local perspectives [5-7]. The new approaches and practices of CE systems tend to strengthen community participation and are associated with bottom-up (citizen involvement and diversity of community actors) as opposed to top-down (institutionally-driven traditional systems) approaches [5,8]. Consequently, a serious effort to address the challenge of emission reduction at the community level and increased adoption of non-carbon energy source in Qatar must acknowledge the community members’ participation and considering their socio-economic factors. In this situation, residents are involved in the process that influences their lives.

The reason of selecting a community in this study is that high level of place attachment may have positive emotional bonds between people and the environment. This bond can serve to motive public support or opposition to the transformation to zero-carbon energy system and to propose technology developments. This position depends if the new technologies was evaluated as posing a threat or an opportunity to the local community. Focusing on a specific space “community” helps to understand of how proposing new technologies and new technological activities such as the transformation to zero-carbon energy systems and technologies, and their associated risks can compromise and influence people’s feeling about the community where they live.

This research aims at developing a scientific framework that integrates the social, economic, and technological factors that are significant in the process of the transition to zero-carbon energy at the community level. The proposed framework includes community digital twin and analytic and economic engines to evaluate options and alternatives. The framework will be designed and tested for a small community in Doha, Qatar. The objective is to develop a set of simple-to-use tools and decision constructs that can be used by planners, engineers and investors to examine different alternatives and determine a feasible set of practical solutions for the transition. This framework will give a set of well-defined “constructs” that are common to zero-carbon transition projects around the world. A set of formal constructs, that when put together gives a feasible solution toward the zero-carbon transition. These constructs will take advantage of options and alternatives on technology, operations, demand management and more. The constructs will be constrained by social, regulatory and economic factors that are programmed into the framework as part of this project. The built-in analytics will help the decision makers to decide which one of these constructs yield solutions that are within reach and feasible overtime economically and socially.

The study will focus on the social attitudes that help the implementation of new technologies to achieve zero-carbon communities. Furthermore, this research will examine the personal, psychological, economical, and contextual factors that combine together to shape public acceptance. Some of the indicators that will be used to measure social adaptation and acceptance include community members’ socio-economic background (age, gender, employment, and education), attitude and behavior, social and personal norms, participant’s position in relation to renewable energy, perceived usefulness and adaptability, cost, anxiety, place, perceived enjoyment and sociability, intention to use, knowledge, financial policy factors, system reliability, time, and culture. These indicators will be examined to test the willingness of people to participate in the transition to zero-carbon energy system and policy, and their acceptability to a new system of energy technology. This also gives an important dimension by examining the public acceptance and adaptation to new technologies and transforming to zero-carbon energy system in a country that is rich with conventional oil resources.

Project 2:

Title of the project: Financial Reporting Quality and Stability – Does Bank Type matters? Implications on Qatar Financial System from the Economic and Political Crises

Performance period: 2021 -2024.

Role: Principal Investigator.

Number of Co-Investigators: 4 + research assistant

Name of Funding Agency:  Qatar University.

Funded amount: under redefining.

Project 3:

Title of the project: The economic and environmental implications of the analysis of the elasticity of demand for Gasoline in Qatar.

Performance period: 1 year from 2019-2020

Role: Principal Investigator (mentor)

Number of Co-Investigators: 3 (3 under graduate students).

Name of Funding Agency: Qatar Foundation, Qatar.

Funded amount: $14,866.00US (UREP25-032-5-006)

Abstract:

It is well recognized in the energy economic literature that a sound understanding of the sensitivity of the demand for gasoline to price variability and income evolution is of particular interest for governments and policy makers when evaluating the efficacy of economic and environmental policies designed to preserve the quality of the environment and precisely air quality. The aim of this project is to understand and analyze the demand for gasoline in Qatar over the period 1980- 2018. Precisely, we propose to estimate both the short- and long-run price and income elasticities of the demand for Gasoline in Qatar. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that examine this problematic for the case of Qatar. Methodologically, to estimate these short- and long-run elasticities, both linear OLS and Autoreressive distributed Lag (ARDL) model will be considered in this study. The variables used will include the total gasoline consumption, the real gasoline price, and the real GDP per capita in addition to some others control variables that will be selected based on a deep analysis of the energy economic literature about the key determinant of gasoline demand. The main sources of data collection will include the World Bank’s development indicators (WDI), the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS) of Qatar as well as other databases. Our investigation is aligned with the Qatar 2030 Vision related to the energy, economic, environmental, and sustainable development pillars. Our investigation will have several important economic, energy and environmental implications for the Qatar state in particular, the GCC and oil exporting countries in general.

Project 2:

Title of the project: A Secure End-to-End Blockchain-Based Solution to Finance Trade: The Legal, Technological, and Economic Framework.

Performance period: 3 years from 2019-2022

Role: Principal Investigator

LPI: Mazen El-Masri

Number of Co-Investigators: 25.

Name of Funding Agency: Qatar Foundation, Qatar.

Funded amount: $3,226,828

Actual Status: Award Pending

Outcomes: In progress

Abstract:

Financial technologies (FinTech) are expected to revolutionize the banking industry and help overcome inherent hurdles in the current finance-related processes. As an example, conventional trade finance processes (e.g., Letter of Credit) continue to be a resource-intensive operation due to the physical exchange and scrutiny of trade-related documents that are vulnerable to fraudulent activities. Bank settlements and fulfillment of financial obligations are also time consuming locking up the working capital of banks and businesses alike. Moreover, the lack of transparency and interoperability between different trade partners impedes the banks’ ability to detect malicious behavior in the financial ecosystem. The FinTech industry duly proclaims that the blockchain technology can address many of these inefficiencies. It is also expected to enable the creation of innovative financial services through the integration of data flows and processes across various stakeholders. Realizing the legal and security challenges that this disruptive technology presents, QCB in collaboration with QDB, recently assembled a FinTech taskforce to explore the full potential of Blockchain technology. The taskforce aims at creating a FinTech ecosystem to host startups and FinTech companies to operate in Qatar under QFCRA. A blockchain sandbox will be established under the governance of the Central Bank to help companies experiment with FinTech utilities endorsed by stakeholders of the FinTech taskforce. The key applications of interest include trade, payment, and commerce. In line with the vision of the banking sector in Qatar and consistent with the call for research of Qatar’s NPRP, this proposal focuses on supporting the FinTech taskforce initiative in the following ways: 1. Research, validate, and incorporate security and design improvements to the blockchain technology that will be chosen by the QCB and bring it to the next generation, 2. Research and develop the smart contracts for FinTech and RegTech utilities to facilitate trade for businesses in Qatar, and 3. Work with the Fintech taskforce to evaluate and align stakeholders’ expectations of the FinTech ecosystem with existing and future policies and regulations of government bodies in Qatar. Our program is comprised of six sub-projects. The first sub-project – blockchain infrastructure – is led by HBKU and focuses on overcoming current limitations in the design of existing DLT technologies such as scalability and transaction reversibility. The second sub-project– blockchain security – which is led by QCRI addresses security threats like resistance to DDoS attacks, protection of private keys, etc. Those PIs of those two sub-projects will collaboratively support the delivery of a rule-based, distributed, and permissioned blockchain platform. The third sub-project exploits the network effect of blockchain technology to co-create value for Qatar’s FinTech ecosystem. The objective of this sub-project is to propose optimized trade finance utilities to the FinTech taskforce to endorse. The sub-project will start with the Letter of Credit (L/C) and follow up with expanding the range of trade finance facilities currently offered by banks to include novel instruments that are most suitable for Qatari SMEs like Supply Chain Finance (inventory financing and receivable purchases) as well as optimized of supply chain logistics. The offering of these utilities will be empowered by the shared blockchain network. The fourth sub-project focuses on Regulatory Technologies (RegTech) and uses artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced analytics to provide utilities for compliance, risk assessment (KYC), and fraud identification (AML, CFT). This sub-project will exploit the wealth of data added by the different trade partners and run analytics to provide intelligence to the Customs Authority (ports), banks, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to name a few. The sub-project will also employ artificial intelligence to detect anomalous and malicious behavior in the ecosystem. Led by the College of Law at Qatar University, the fifth sub-project will help the FinTech taskforce in governing the Fintech ecosystem. Specifically, we will work with key stakeholders and governance bodies to assess and advance standards, policies, and guidelines related to trade finance. Another objective of this sub-project is to promote the initiative within the larger business community and ensure its sustainability after the completion of the program. Lastly, the aim of the sixth sub-project is to manage the effective coordination and integration of work among the five sub-projects to ensure the program milestones are achieved. While the proposal is motivated by QNRF’s call for applied research on Cyber Resilient Fintech, we also address the current political challenges that are facing Qatar and propose effective means to alleviate the financial and operational hurdles facing the different trade stakeholders. During 8 months, we embarked on a knowledge exploration initiative with local banks like QDB, QFC, MoTC, MoFA, QPay, etc. to propose use-cases that create value for the different stakeholders. The key benefits that were identified within the banking sector include reduced processing time and cost, improved risk assessment, and diversified market opportunities. For local businesses, we expect the proposed solutions to shorten the trade cycle and improve liquidity. We also expect the novel Supply Chain Financing utilities to free the working capital, reduce shipping cost, and facilitate trade financing for SMEs. We expect the proposed solutions to result in operational efficiencies for the Customs Authority and Milaha Logistics and ease congestions at the seaport, reduce customs processing time and cost, and provide intelligence to predict fraudulent activities. Qatar’s Central Bank will have better visibility of trade activities through advanced AML and CFT analytics and reporting.

Project 3:

Title of the project: Impact of ICTs Investments and Urbanization Level on Environmental Quality in Qatar.

Performance period: 1 year from February 2018 to February 2019.

Role: Lead Principal Investigator

Number of Co-Investigators: 3 undergraduate students- Asma Al-Maadid, Yosra Hamana, and Aisha Al-Thani.

Name of Funding Agency: Qatar Foundation, Qatar.

Project Number: UREP21-120-5-016

Funded amount: $14,824

Actual Status: Award Tech. Completed

Outcomes:

• Final report accepted
• Research Magazine paper (QU) submitted
• White Paper (in progress)
• Research article (in progress)
• Participation in the Qatar Green Building Conference, October 2018.
• Interview in French with the Oryx FM radio in February 2019 (to present the project). Interview provided by the first two students (Al-Maadid, A. and Hamana, Y.).

Abstract:

The aim of this project is to investigate the impact of the investment in information communication and technologies (ICTs) and the level of urbanization on environmental quality. We focus our analysis for the case of Qatar during the period from 1975 to 2016. In particular, we will interested to determine the impact of ICTs and urbanization on the dependent variable in both the short and long run. Moreover, we will examine the causality direction between all the variables of the model. This will allow policymakers to propose a complete strategy that can help reducing energy consumption and improving environmental degradation without reducing economic growth. Methodologically, our investigation will be based on the exploitation of data provided by the World Bank’s development indicators (WDI) as well as the collection of other data reflecting the social and institutional aspects of the Qatari community from other data base such Bloomberg. The available data covers the period 1975-2016 which is large enough to investigate the objectives of this research project. We will develop our economic model based on previous literature review in this area. Mainly, we will use the cointegration approach theory to examine the presence of the long run equilibrium relationship between investigated variables and Granger causality approach to investigate the causal direction relationship. To do that, we use the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model proposed by Pesaran and shin (1999). It is important to note that the rapid increases in economic growth and urbanization have led to a rapid increase of natural resource demands for production. This increasing dependency on energy consumption has increased carbon dioxide emission levels creating system inefficiencies and environmental challenges. In the recent years, liveability and sustainability in Qatar have become the central concerns for the country. The first solutions that have been proposed were costly and inefficient. For instance, the use of technology and desalination plants and treatment or waste remediation have shown to be costly and has negative impacts on the environment. Our investigation is aligned with the Qatar 2030 Vision related to:

• Reasonable and sustainable rates of economic growth.

• Preserving and protecting the environment.

• ICTs and Sustainable urbanization.

Project 4:

Title of the project: Government spending, FDI and economic diversification in oil producing countries: the case of Qatar

Performance period:

Role: Lead Principal Investigator (LPI).

Number of Co-Investigators: Dr. Karim Barkat (CBE, Qatar University)

Name of Funding Agency: Qatar Financial Center.

Funded amount: $7,300

Actual Status: Award Tech. Completed

Outcomes:

Final report accepted

Abstract:

The Qatar economy like its neighbors, the five other GCC economies, rely heavily in oil and gas as a main source of the country revenues and economic growth. For instance, in 2014, the hydrocarbons revenues account for almost half of the country GDP. Moreover, oil and gas revenues represent approximately 85% of fiscal revenues of Qatar (Qatar Economic Report, Bank Audi). Consequently, there is no doubt on the fact that the recent oil price fluctuations, where oil prices have decreased from a price level of 105,54$ in June 2014, to reach the low level of 28,50$ in January 2016, will have a significant impact in the short and long-term economic strategies of the country. The most expected actions are related to reducing government spending in the short term and implementing more policies toward reducing the dependence of the Qatar economy on the oil sector in the long-run.

Moreover, the recent oil prices fluctuations have renewed and stressed the needs for the Qatari policymakers to continue the efforts already made in order to achieve the economic diversification of the national economy. However, despite the substantial efforts made in the last years both in terms of publics policies and government spending, there is only a slightly increase of the share of the non-oil GDP in the total GDP during the last ten years as shown in Figure 1 below. In the literature, it is well known that a successful economic diversification strategy requires a real commitment of the private sector, a consistent public policies and the availability of financial resources. Policymakers have to bring in mind that, the economic diversification process is a long process which can take several years and need the commitment of all the society.

The main objective of this proposal is to review and analyze the actual situation of the economic diversification based on the roadmaps of the Qatar National Vision 2030 and the National Development Strategy (2011–2016). Precisely, based in a deep empirical sectorial and sub-sectorial analysis, we will examine to what extend the local industry in Qatar have contributed to the economic diversification of the country. We will also assess the role played by government expending and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) efforts in the improvement of the ratio of non-oil GDP to total GDP. This empirical analysis will enables us to identify which sectors or subsectors have not shown a real improvement in the economic diversification and to identify any gap that may exist compared to the two above mentioned roadmaps.

In order to achieve these above mentioned objectives, it is important to answer the following questions :

1. How can a country achieve a successful economic diversification? This first step can be easily facilitated by learning from the success stories of certain others countries in the last few decades.
2. Is the government policies consistent with the global economic strategy and vision of the Qatar country.
3. Does the government have the necessary resources to implement the required policies?
4. What role should the financial system (and the QFC) play in order to attract FDI? How can the QFC help in improving economic diversification. (financial regulations and private sector).
5. Which government policies and policy instruments are more effective in promoting economic diversification? This will be the subject of the empirical study part.
6. What are the main obstacles to diversify the economy and the export sector in Qatar?

The results of this study are likely to have implications for Qatari policymakers and planners of Qatar national strategy 2030 in terms of helping to achieve economic diversification. This proposal will assess the  policies implemented and the government effort in term of economic diversification during the last few years. It will also identify any gap there still exist. Moreover, it will provide policy implications and recommendation on how to improve and speed economic diversification.

Project 5:

Title of the project: Can we improve environmental quality without reducing economic growth in Qatar?

Performance period: December 23^rd, 2015 to December 23^rd 2016.

Role: Lead Principal Investigator (LPI).

Number of Co-Investigators: Two graduate students – Afnan Y. Al-Malk and Kholod, Al-Karbi, K.

Name of Funding Agency: Qatar Foundation.

Funded amount: $15,800

Actual Status: Award Tech. Completed

Outcomes:

• Final report accepted
• Publication in High ranked Journal (ISI, IF of 9.184 and ranked Q 1 in the web of Sciences).

Charfeddine, L., Al-Malk, A. Y., Kholoud. A. K. (2018). Is it possible to improve environmental quality without reducing economic growth: Evidence from the Qatar economy? Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 82(P1), 25-39.

• White paper published in the CBE – white paper series about “Air pollution Qatar: Causes and challenges”.
• Participation in the international conference of the Middle East Economic Association EEA conference organized in Doha, Qatar.
•  Interview with Oryx FM radio in Qatar (In French). Interview provided to discuss the publication in the RSER journal.

Abstract:

This project aims to examine the energy consumption – economic growth nexus for the case of Qatar country. In particular, we examine which of the growth, conservation, neutrality or feedback hypothesis holds for the Qatar economy. The answer to the question of whether economic growth drive the increase of energy consumption or inversely is of great importance for both policy makers and academic researchers. The idea is that the impact of energy conservation policies on economic activity depends mainly on the causal relationship between energy consumption and economic growth. For instance, if energy use is an important component in economic growth either directly or indirectly, energy conservation policies designed to reduce energy use may have an adverse impact on a country’s growth prospects. In addition, we will investigate whether this relationship has changed over time. Methodologically, our empirical investigation is based on data sourced from the World Bank’s development indicators (WDI) as well as other databases. This data will cover the period from 1961 to 2010. Our multivariate framework model includes real GDP (RGDP), real gross fixed capital formation (K), labor force (L), and energy use (EC) in addition to some others control variables. To investigate these issues, we employ the cointegration approach with structural breaks proposed by Gregory and Hansen (1996). This approach is known to be more robust and efficient compared to the traditional cointegration approach of Granger (1987) or Johansen (1991). Finally, to assess the causal relationship between all variables we propose to use the Granger causality approach. Our investigation is aligned with the Qatar 2030 Vision related to the environmental, economic and sustainable development pillars. In particular, we try to contribute to the question of how we can improve environmental quality without degrading economic growth by investigating how to conserve the environment via energy conservation without reducing economic growth rate.

Project 6:

Title of the project: The Causal Relationship Between Environmental Degradation and its Key Determinants in Qatar.

Performance period: December 23^rd, 2015 to December 23^rd, 2016.

Role: Lead Principal Investigator (LPI).

Number of Co-Investigators: 2 undergraduate students –  Athar Al Mansour and Aisha Ali.

Name of Funding Agency: Qatar Foundation.

Grant Number: UREP18-159-5-044.

Funded amount: $16,200

Actual Status: Award Tech. Completed

Outcomes:

Final report accepted

Abstract:

This project aims to investigate the causal relationship between environment degradation and its key determinants such as economic growth, energy consumption, financial development, urbanization and institutional factors for the Qatar country. In particular, we will examine whether the relationship between environment degradation and economic growth is inverted U-shaped which validates the Environment Kuznet’s Curve (EKC) hypothesis. In addition, we will examine the short and long run causal relationship between all investigated variables. This will allow us to suggest ways that improve the environment quality without destroying the economic growth. Methodologically, our investigation will be based on the exploitation of data provided by the world Bank’s development indicators (WDI) as well as the collection of other data reflecting the social and institutional aspects of the Qatari community from other data base such Bloomberg and Freedom House data. The available data covers the period 1975-2010 which is large enough to investigate the objectives of this research project. We will develop our economic model based on previous literature review in this area. Mainly, we will use the cointegration approach theory to examine the presence of the long run equilibrium relationship between investigated variables and Granger causality approach to investigate the causal direction relationship. To do that, we use the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model proposed by Pesaran and shin (1999). It is important to note that the rapid increases in economic growth and urbanization have led to a rapid increases of natural resource demands . This increasing dependency on energy consumption has increased carbon dioxide emission levels creating system inefficiencies and health challenges. In the recent years, liveability and sustainability in Qatar have became the central concerns of the country. The first solutions that have been proposed were costly and inefficient. For instance, the use of technology and desalination plants and treatment or waste remediation have shown to be costly and has negative impacts on the environment. Our investigation is aligned with the Qatar 2030 Vision related to: • Reasonable and sustainable rates of economic growth. • Preserving and protecting the environment. • Sustainable urbanization.

Project 7:

Title of the project: Effects of innovations types on service firms performance : Evidence from Qatar.

Performance period: February 21^st, 2016 to December 31^st, 2016.

Role: Lead Principal Investigator (LPI).

Number of Co-Investigators: Dr. Issa Dawd (CBE, Qatar University)

Name of Funding Agency: Qatar University.

Grant Number:  QUUG-CBE-DFE-15/16-13

Funded amount: $24,400

Actual Status: Award Tech. Completed

Outcomes:

Final report accepted.

Paper submitted for publication.

Abstract:

In the last few years, the importance of services has increased in both developed and developing countries. For instance, nowadays most developed markets are driven by services sector, as an example for the UK, the contribution of the service sector exceed 70% of the gross domestic product (GDP). Similarly, in developing markets, the services sectors are  also becoming more important., as an example the contribution of the service sector is more than 40% of China’s GDP, (Ostrom et al 2010). In Qatar, the share in aggregate output of services is expected to increase from 30% in 2014 to an expected value of 40% in 2016 (Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics).

Notwithstanding the importance service sector and a few notable exceptions, very little is documented in the extant literature about the importance of innovations in service sector and their links to economic and firm performance. While, the majority of existant studies related to services sector have examined innovation in developed countries (Han and Kim, 1998 and Damanpour et al. 2009), only few studies have examined innovation in the service sector in developing countries. To fill this gap,  this study contributes to the innovation literature by investigating the relationship between innovations types and firm performance in Qatar.

Qatar is of interest because it has remarkable growth in stock exchange activity and the unique business environment where the services sector is seen as a major driver of economic growth. Service sector is expected to be the largest contributor to GDP growth in the coming years. Transportation, communications, business and financial services have growing vigorously over the last two decades. World Cup-related activities may bring new chances in tourism and other areas. The new Hamad International Airport is likely to offer a more vibrant air transport hub in the state. The objective of this research project is to examine the impacts of innovations types on the different forms of company performance, (innovative, environmental, market and financial performances).

This research project will contribute to the literature in a many ways. First, unlike the majority of prior researches which had examines manufacturing firms (e.g. Gunday et al. 2011; Hassan et al. 2013),  in this research project we will focus in the service sector. Second, we develop a theoretical framework, based by Gunday et al. (2011), to investigate the effects of innovations types on firm performance for the services sectors. Third, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that investigate the effects of innovation types on firms performance in Qatar. Finally, we extend the firm performance by including the environmental performance construct. The data used to explore the relationship between types of innovations and firm performance will be collected using a survey that cover all service companies in the state of Qatar. In order to ensure that sample used is representative to the population (service sector), we propose to use a stratified sampling approach. The questionnaire will be developed and administrated in both (English and Arabic) since Arabic is mother language of the state and English is wide used language in business in Qatar. As respondents, we target managers who is familiar with innovations, firm performance and environmental performance. The data will be collected by a professional research company.

The results of the study are likely to have implications for decision makers, planners of Qatar national strategy 2030 in terms of shed light on innovation in service sector which may help to achieve one of the strategic plan’s goals which is success of the state in its competitive position in the international economy and play its effective role that must play at both the regional and international levels, and the academic community.

Project 8:

Title of the project: Environment degradation and economic growth in the Qatar economy: Evidence from a Markov Switching Equilibrium Correction Model

Performance period: December 2014 to December 2015.

Role: Lead Principal Investigator (LPI).

Number of Co-Investigators: None

Name of Funding Agency: Qatar University – Start-up grant.

Funded amount: $10,300

Actual Status: Award Tech. Completed

Outcomes:

• Final report accepted
• Publication in High ranked Journal (ISI, IF of 3.199 and ranked Q 1 in the web of Sciences).

       Charfeddine, L. (2017). The impact of energy consumption and economic development on Ecological Footprint and CO2 emissions : Evidence from a Markov Switching Equilibrium Correction Model. Energy Economics, 65, 355-374.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988317301524

• Participation in international conferences

       Charfeddine, L. (Author & Presenter), Middle East Economic Association (MEEA), “Environment Degradation and Economic growth in the Qatar Economy : Evidence from a Markov Switching Equilibrium Correction Model,” Other, Doha – Qatar, Qatar. (March 23, 2016).

Abstract:

Reducing the impact of air pollution and global environmental degradation on human health and quality of life for Qatari citizens represents the most important objective of the Qatar National vision 2030. With respect to this vision, this study investigates the effects of economic growth, energy consumption, trade openness, urbanization and financial development on environmental degradation by using the Markov Switching Equilibrium Correction Model with shifts in both the intercept and income per capita slope for the period 1970–2015. Unlike existing studies and in addition to the CO2 emissions pollutant, this paper uses the total Ecological Footprint and Ecological Carbon Footprint as new proxies of environmental degradation.

Empirical results show strong evidence for cointegration with Markov shifts. In particular, our results show that the non-control for breaks can hide the true relationship among variables. The results show also that when controlling for breaks the Environment Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis holds for the  CO2 emissions and Ecological carbon Footprint pollutants and the U-shaped behavior holds for the total Ecological Footprint. Moreover, the results show that these two behaviors (EKC and U-shaped) are regime dependent. Regarding the other explanatory variables, the results show that trade openness and urbanization worsen Ecological Footprint. However, the electricity consumption and financial development are positively related to the Ecological Footprint and negatively related to Ecological Carbon Footprint and CO2 emissions. Finally, we found evidence for the growth hypothesis for both pollutants. Based on these results, a detailed economic, energy and environmental policy is proposed and discussed for the case of Qatar.