Department of Economics, Government College University Faisalabad, Faisalabad, 38000, Pakistan.
Institute of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Faisalabad, 38000, Pakistan.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2020 Nov;27(31):38995-39018. doi: 10.1007/s11356-020-09772-3. Epub 2020 Jul 8.
This study investigates the causal connection between economic growth, foreign direct investment, primary and renewable energy utilization, trade openness, and ecological footprint for 33 upper-middle-income countries (UMICs) from Africa, Asia, Europe, and America during the period from 1994 to 2017. Initially, first- as well as second-generation panel unit root tests are applied to check the integration order after confirming the cross-sectional dependency and heterogeneity. Four different tests (FMOLS, DOLS, FGLS, and AMG) are applied to estimate the long-run elasticity, whereas Dumitrescu and Hurlin (D-H) non-causality test is used to test growth, conservation, and feedback hypothesis. Results show negative relationship of economic growth on ecological footprint in Africa and Europe; renewable energy utilization in Asia, Europe, and America; and trade openness in Asia. Moreover, the results revealed an adverse impact of trade openness on ecological footprint in case of Africa and America. Furthermore, the results of D-H panel non-causality test confirm the growth hypothesis for economic growth to ecological footprint in Africa, Asia, and Europe; foreign direct investment to ecological footprint in Africa and Asia; primary energy utilization to ecological footprint in Asia; renewable energy utilization to ecological footprint in America; and trade openness to ecological footprint in Africa, Asia, and America. Furthermore, the feedback hypothesis was confirmed between economic growth and ecological footprint in Asia and Europe; foreign direct investment and ecological footprint in Africa and Asia; renewable energy utilization and ecological footprint for America; and trade openness and ecological footprint for Asia and America. Finally, in context to efficient policy implications, it is suggested to associate the economic growth with clean energy and environment-friendly technologies by expanding the share of renewable energy in America and economic growth in Africa and Europe. Furthermore, Asian policy makers need to focus on foreign direct investment and trade openness by using green energy to overcome the environmental degradation. Impulsion with these findings, the central authorities of UMICs need to focus on more investments in environmental quality not only through foreign direct investment but also exchanging their clean energy technologies through trade policies such as tax exemption, feed-in tariffs, and subsidies. Government of these countries ought to upgrade the conventional capital which will ultimately improve the human lives by providing clean environment.
本研究考察了 1994 年至 2017 年间来自非洲、亚洲、欧洲和美洲的 33 个中上收入国家（UMICs）的经济增长、外国直接投资、初级和可再生能源利用、贸易开放度和生态足迹之间的因果关系。首先，在确认横截面相关性和异质性之后，应用第一代和第二代面板单位根检验来检查整合顺序。应用四种不同的检验（FMOLS、DOLS、FGLS 和 AMG）来估计长期弹性，而 Dumitrescu 和 Hurlin（D-H）非因果检验用于检验增长、保护和反馈假设。结果表明，在非洲和欧洲，经济增长与生态足迹呈负相关；在亚洲、欧洲和美洲，可再生能源利用与生态足迹呈负相关；在亚洲，贸易开放度与生态足迹呈负相关。此外，结果表明，在非洲和美洲，贸易开放度对生态足迹有不利影响。此外，D-H 面板非因果检验的结果证实了经济增长对非洲、亚洲和欧洲生态足迹的增长假设；外国直接投资对非洲和亚洲生态足迹的增长假设；初级能源利用对亚洲生态足迹的增长假设；可再生能源利用对美国生态足迹的增长假设；以及贸易开放度对非洲、亚洲和美洲生态足迹的增长假设。此外，在亚洲和欧洲，经济增长与生态足迹之间存在反馈假设；在非洲和亚洲，外国直接投资与生态足迹之间存在反馈假设；在美国，可再生能源利用与生态足迹之间存在反馈假设；在亚洲和美洲，贸易开放度与生态足迹之间存在反馈假设。最后，就有效的政策意义而言，建议通过扩大美国可再生能源的份额和非洲和欧洲的经济增长，将经济增长与清洁能源和环境友好型技术联系起来。此外，亚洲决策者需要通过使用绿色能源来关注外国直接投资和贸易开放度，以克服环境退化。根据这些发现，UMICs 的中央当局需要更加关注环境质量的投资，不仅通过外国直接投资，还可以通过贸易政策（如免税、上网电价和补贴）来交流清洁能源技术。这些国家的政府应该升级传统资本，这将通过提供清洁环境最终改善人类生活。
