School of Economics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430070, People's Republic of China.
Department of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Jos, Jos, 930001, Nigeria.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2021 Jul;28(26):34885-34901. doi: 10.1007/s11356-021-13125-z. Epub 2021 Mar 4.
Growth and environment literature has gained much attention in recent times. However, the emphasis was laid on the conventional economic growth or gross domestic product at the expense of the category of growth that is evenly shared and whose social benefits are far reaching than just an increase in the overall economic pie. It is on this note that the present paper looks at the type of relationship between growth and environment with particular emphasis on growth that is all inclusive. Data are sourced from World Governance and Development Indicators (WGI and WDI) and an index of inclusive growth constructed using principal component analysis (PCA). The findings indicate that institutional quality plays a major role in enhancing growth-environmental sustainability. The results further find a new phenomenon called environmental inclusive-growth Kuznets curve (EIKC) and added to the EKC debate. That is, at the early phase of inclusive growth, environmental degradation rises as well but environmental quality improves with the rise in inclusive growth at a higher phase of the relationship. The study recommends that policymakers should encourage the economies of sub-Saharan Africa to pursue inclusive growth and not compromise it for sustainability since sustainability comes later. Institutional quality which serves as a transmission mechanism in the study can as well be used as a robust and efficient structure to avoid adverse environmental externalities of inclusive growth.
近年来，增长与环境文献受到了广泛关注。然而，传统的经济增长或国内生产总值一直是关注的重点，而忽略了那种平等分享的增长类别，这种增长的社会效益远远超出了整体经济蛋糕的增长。正是基于这一点，本文特别关注了增长与环境之间的关系类型，重点关注包容性增长。数据来源于世界治理与发展指标（WGI 和 WDI）以及使用主成分分析（PCA）构建的包容性增长指数。研究结果表明，制度质量在促进增长与环境可持续性方面发挥着重要作用。研究结果还发现了一种新的现象，称为环境包容性增长库兹涅茨曲线（EIKC），并为 EKC 辩论增添了新内容。也就是说，在包容性增长的早期阶段，环境恶化也会加剧，但随着包容性增长在关系的更高阶段上升，环境质量会得到改善。本研究建议，政策制定者应该鼓励撒哈拉以南非洲经济体追求包容性增长，而不是为了可持续性而牺牲它，因为可持续性是后来的事情。制度质量作为研究中的一种传递机制，也可以作为一个稳健而有效的结构，以避免包容性增长的不利环境外部性。
