Iraqi Statisticians Journal

The present article explores the asymmetric dynamic effects of fiscal sustainability and structural transformation on the private investment in Iraq over the timeframe (2008-2025) in a QARDL model optimized by Marine Predators Algorithm (MPA). The approach incorporates the use of MPA to improve on the efficiency of best lag choice followed by the estimation of the parameters to overcome non-convexity in the quantile loss function. The findings indicate asymmetric cointegration and a fiscal crowding out in both senses, and in both the structural transformation is revealed as the major source of driving in the low-credit period. The findings indicate that the emerging investments are very susceptible to inflation and parallel exchange rate shocks and therefore require specific monetary interventions. The paper suggests the use of the QARDL-MPA due to the high ability to predict nonlinear time series in economically uncertain settings