Determinants of the ecological footprint in Thailand: the influences of tourism, trade openness, and population density

Time-varying causality relationships between trade openness, technological innovation, industrialization, financial development, and carbon emissions in Thailand

Over the last twenty years, there has been swift growth in industrialization and technological advancements, driving economic progress. Nevertheless, it is inevitable that these sectors will bring about environmental shifts. Thus far, endeavors have been undertaken to assess the influence of industrialization and technological advancements on environmental deterioration. Additionally, the extensive discussion surrounding the impact of financial development, trade openness, and technological innovation on the environment has not yielded conclusive empirical findings. Studies often operate under the assumption of symmetric relationships, potentially leading to biased results. Adding to the discussion on the drivers of carbon neutrality, the time-dependent effects of critical aspects such as financial development and technological innovation should inform meaningful policies for environmental management. This article explores the time-varying causal association between trade openness, industrialization, financial development, technological innovation, and CO2 emissions in Thailand using novel time-varying Granger causality tests. The time-varying causality outcomes demonstrate that the associations change significantly over time, in contrast to the results of Toda-Yamamoto causality. Overall, there exists a bidirectional relationship between industrialization, financial development, trade openness, technological innovation, and CO2 emissions over different time sequences. These outcomes have implications for both policy and research.

Spillover impacts of financial development and globalization on environmental quality in ASEAN countries

In the globalization era, the economic policy of a specific country might be influenced by the development of neighboring countries. Thus, this study aims to probe the direct and spillover effects of financial development, economic growth, and globalization on environmental sustainability in ASEAN countries during the period of 1992-2021. By applying three spatial regression models, the results are summarized: (1) There are positive spillover effects of financial development in neighboring countries on ecological footprint in a particular country; (2) Economic growth has a positive impact on ecological deficits in both the host country and neighboring countries in the short-run; (3) The expansion of globalization in neighboring countries has a negative spillover effect on the ecological footprint in a particular country and vice versa. Based on these findings, the study recommends that when a country formulates its economic policies, it is necessary to calculate the impact of that policy on neighboring countries and vice versa. Encouraging economic growth and expanding the money supply ought to go hand in hand with fostering greater integration. This integration is essential to counterbalance the potential adverse effects of these macroeconomic variables on environmental quality and ecological balance.

Disaggregated energy consumption, industrialization, total population, and ecological footprint nexus: evidence from the world's top 10 most populous countries

High population, energy consumption, industrialization, and environmental degradation are inherently linked, making the study of ecological footprints in the most populous countries crucial for understanding their environmental impact and guiding efforts to minimize ecological degradation through sustainable resource management and conservation. Therefore, this study examines the effects of disaggregated energy consumption, industrialization, and total population on the ecological footprint of the world's top 10 most populous countries namely Bangladesh, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, and the USA, using data for the period of 1990-2020. The research employs Kao and Pedroni techniques of cointegration to determine whether the variables are cointegrated in the long run. The long-term equilibrium association is measured utilizing panel autoregressive distributed lag/pooled mean group (ARDL/PMG), and method of moment quantile (MMQ) regression methods. Furthermore, to test for the causal relationships between the selected variables, we used the Dumitrescu and Hurlin (D-H) panel causality method. The findings of the study reveal that renewable energy consumption, as well as GDP square, have a significant negative influence on ecological footprint, implying that renewable energy and GDP square reduce ecological footprint and thus enhance environmental quality. Furthermore, non-renewable energy, industrialization, total population, and GDP have a detrimental impact on environmental quality by increasing ecological footprint. It is also found that there is a one-way causality from non-renewable energy and industrialization to ecological footprint and a bidirectional causal relationship between ecological footprint and total population, GDP, and GDP2. Important policy implications are drawn based on the findings.

Industrialization, globalization, ICT, and environmental degradation in Malaysia: A frequency domain analysis

This paper examines the causal relationship between industrialization, globalization, information communication technology (ICT) and environmental degradation in Malaysia during 1970-2019. It uses two indicators of environmental degradation (carbon emissions and ecological footprint), three dimensions of globalization (political, social, and economic) and three indicators of ICT (users of internet, mobile cellular, and fixed telephone subscriptions). It utilizes Granger causality technique in frequency domain which differentiates between permanent and temporary causality, Vector Error Correction approach as well as Variance Decompositions. The bound test shows that the variables have cointegration relationship. It reveals joint long-run and short-run causality from industrialization, globalization, and ICT to carbon emissions, albeit the causality to ecological footprint is tenuous. It indicates that industrialization, globalization, and ICT significantly predict carbon emissions at high frequency than at low frequency. A substantial percentage of the forecast error variance in environmental degradation are explained by industrialization, globalization, and ICT. The robustness of the empirical outcomes is confirmed by the alternative proxies of the variables. Our study implies that industrialization, globalization, and ICT are determinants of environmental degradation. Therefore, policies to mitigate environmental problem should prioritize these variables to attain green economy.

Do natural resources affect environmental quality in MINT Economies? The role of tourism and financial development

With the growing nature of the ecological footprint, research studies focus on exploring new determinants of environmental degradation. Moreover, the role of natural resources and energy consumption in environmental quality has gained much attention in the literature. However, tourism raises the demand for energy consumption and extraction of natural resources. This research study investigates the influence of natural resources, tourism, and renewable energy in MINT countries, using novel Cross-Sectional Auto Regressive Distributive Lag (CS-ARDL) methodological techniques and employing yearly data from 1995 to 2018. The study also applied recently developed Kónya (Econ Model 23:978-992, 2006) causality to identify the causal relationship between the variables of the heterogenous panel. The result shows that tourism, natural resources, and economic growth are positively associated with the ecological footprint in the long-run. However, renewable energy consumption negatively impacts ecological footprint in both in short-run and the long-run. Further, the study explored a bidirectional causality between economic growth and ecological footprint in MINT countries. Finally, based on the empirical results, the study recommends that the authorities in MINT countries revisit their tourism, natural resources, and economic activities policies to enhance the environmental quality and reduce the ecological footprint.

Does renewable energy improve environmental quality? Evidence from RECAI countries

Since 1990, the ecological footprints have been increasing significantly with a continuous increase rate, which led to challenges to environmental quality. The basis for economic growth was said to be the shift of energy and environmental strategies toward a sustainable future. Indeed, it became a matter of proclaimed acceptance that environmental challenges nurtured expansion, innovation, and competitiveness. Climate change is the most pressing issue being faced by the world due to an increase in ecological footprint from 7.0 billion to 20.6 billion GHA. It indicates the seriousness of environmental degradation; therefore, nations need to ensure environmental sustainability. Keeping this in mind, the present research mainly aims to examine the impact of renewable energy utilization on the ecological footprints of RECAI economies, spanning the period from 1990 to 2020. To significantly achieve the research objective, we utilized panel econometric methods for empirical analysis. The results of long-run elasticities indicate that both renewable energy utilization as well as trade openness significantly controls the ecological footprints, while higher conventional energy utilization and economic growth significantly impede environmental sustainability. The empirical findings provide new insights for policymakers on renewable energy for the betterment of environmental quality in RECAI countries.

Ecological footprint analysis of the phosphorus industry in China

Mitigating the effects of environmental deterioration requires a focus on not just CO₂ emissions from energy consumption, but also environmental pollution from industry sectors. To reach this goal, recent studies have extended ecological footprint (EF) analysis to identify the ecological drivers of various key industry sectors. The role of the phosphorus (P) industry on the EF within the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) framework for China is the emphasis of this study. Autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) as well as the impulse response function and robustness analysis were used to consider a time from 1985 to 2018. The study verifies the EKC hypothesis for China in both the long and the short run, and indispensable determinants are proposed to be included to assure the model's fitness and robustness when conducting EF analysis of industry sectors. Energy consumption-based carbon emissions have been verified as the dominant contributor to EF, but P use and urbanization have a significant lagged positive influence on EF in the short run. P exports, in particular, have been highlighted as a critical driver of the EF of China's P industry. The conducted frequency domain causality test reinforced the above findings and demonstrated bidirectional causality at different frequencies. This work suggests that formulating plausible P export policies to alleviate the conflict between the output of China's P industry and the environmental sustainability of this industry are necessary. In this context, "multidisciplinary, multidimensional, and practical solutions" are most desirable for sustainable P management.

The shadow economy-environmental quality nexus in OECD countries: empirical evidence from panel quantile regression

This study examines the heterogenous impact of shadow economy on the ecological footprint. We apply the panel quantile regression to a panel dataset of 32 OECD countries from 1990 to 2015. The estimation results indicate that the shadow economy-ecological footprint nexus follows an inverted U-shaped pattern. Initially, the higher size of the informal economy leads to more ecosystem degradation. When the shadow economy increases to certain thresholds, its environmental impact reverts to benefit. Such threshold changes with the evolution of the ecological footprint. Specifically, it first rises then decreases along with the degradation of the ecosystem. Moreover, the heterogeneous panel causality test reports the one-way directional running from the shadow economy to the ecological footprint in OECD countries. Likewise, environmental effects of other control variables, including trade openness, energy intensity, renewable energy, and income, are also not homogeneous across various levels of the ecological footprint. The significant and heterogeneous relationships between ecological footprint and its determining factors provide insightful implications for governments in tailoring environmental regulations upon different ecological conditions.

Assessing economic sustainability and ecological efficiency with genuine progress indicator: a case study of the Yangtze River Delta from 2000 to 2018

To achieve urban sustainability, it is critical to enhance the environment, economy, and society simultaneously. This study adopted the revised genuine progress indicator (GPI) and ecological footprint (EF) to evaluate the ecological efficiency and economic sustainability of the Yangtze River Delta from 2000 to 2018. Spatial analysis was utilized to identify spatial autocorrelation. A total of 27 cities were then partitioned through k-means cluster analysis. The results showed that GPI and ecological efficiency improved rapidly, but economic sustainability showed a downward trend. GPI and GDP had a high degree of spatial correlation, especially in Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou Metropolitan Area. However, no spatial correlation existed between GPI and EF. The city with high GEE can reach 3000 $/gha, indicating the city consumed 1 global hectare to create $3000 of genuine economic growth. Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Taizhou were cities with the highest level of economic sustainability and ecological efficiency. The spatiotemporal characteristics of economic sustainability and ecological efficiency revealed in this study will provide theoretical guidance for alleviating ecological pressure and promoting economic sustainable development.

Transformation of Rural Space under the Impact of Tourism: The Case of Xiamen, China

Tourism plays a key role in sustaining economic development. Previous research has established the connections between tourism and urban growth, as well as the influence of tourism on population and social structure, and the impact of tourism on the landscape. Fewer studies have been conducted on the impact of tourism on the process of rural development change, especially how rural spatial transformation and local community development are driven through tourism. This paper investigates the link between tourism and rural spatial development in China, using in-depth interviews. The research demonstrates that the ambiguity of collective land ownership in China is a key factor in the process of village development. The transformation of villages from “production space” to “consumption space” is driven by tourism based on the land institution arrangement. It is hoped that this research will contribute to a deeper understanding that tourism should be valued in the future as part of the village development process, especially when tourism plays a long-term role in promoting village development.

An empirical note on tourism and sustainable development nexus

The goal of this research is to investigate the impact of tourism on sustainable development in the 10 most visited countries. For this purpose, following the STIRPAT model, the impact of urbanization, energy intensity, and tourism on the newly designed sustainable development index is examined for the period 1995-2015. In doing so, tourism is represented by two different indicators, the number of tourists and tourism receipts. In addition, the impact of tourism on economic growth is analyzed to compare the effects of tourism development on economic growth and sustainable development. While doing this, second-generation panel data methods are used to take into account the possible inter-country dependency. According to the findings obtained in the study, tourism, energy intensity, and urbanization have positive effects on economic growth. On the other hand, the effects of all three factors on the sustainable development index are negative and statistically significant. These findings indicate that the harmful effects of tourism on other dimensions of sustainable development are greater than the beneficial effects of tourism on economic growth.

Modelling the effects of energy diversification on ecological footprint: evidence from Côte d'Ivoire

Energy diversification is a vital contribution to sustainable development. Many countries are accelerating the diversification of their energy mix to meet the challenges of the energy transition. This study aims to model and investigate the effects of energy diversification on the ecological footprint of production in Côte d'Ivoire. The study uses an autoregressive distributed lag model with structural breaks and covers the period 1971-2015. Energy diversification is measured by an "Energy Mix Concentration Index," a concentration indicator based on the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index. The results suggest that, in the short term, energy diversification reduces the ecological footprint of production in Côte d'Ivoire, and is conducive for environmental protection. In the long term, energy diversification also has a reducing effect on the ecological footprint of production up to a certain threshold where energy concentration increases the ecological footprint. The study finds that there is an optimal level of energy diversification that is ideal for achieving a lower impact of energy diversification activities and exploitation of energy production sources on the environment in Côte d'Ivoire. The commissioning of the Azito power plant in 1999, which produces electricity using natural gas, has also had a major impact, not only on the country's energy mix since then, but also on its ecological footprint of production.

Heading towards sustainable environment: exploring the dynamic linkage among selected macroeconomic variables and ecological footprint using a novel dynamic ARDL simulations approach

Ever since the emancipation of a country, its environmental quality has undergone a significant transition during the development phases; Bangladesh is no exception. Bangladesh is facing a serious threat in the age of global warming, and climate change as the country is looking forward in achieving the SDGs by 2030. Yet, there is a dearth of study regarding the relationship among crucial macroeconomic drivers and ecological footprint (a proxy for environmental degradation). Under the circumstances, this study explores the effects of economic growth, capital formation, urbanization, trade openness, energy use, and technological innovation on the ecological footprint by adopting the novel dynamic Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) simulations approach for Bangladesh, using annual frequency data from 1972 to 2017. Empirical results from the bounds test ascertained that there exists a long-run equilibrium association among the outlined variables. Furthermore, the novel dynamic ARDL simulation results revealed that Bangladesh is yet to achieve the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. It was observed that the Bangladesh economy is still at the scale stage of its economic trajectory, emphasizing economic growth relative to her environmental status. However, capital formation, urbanization, and energy use seemed to degrade environmental quality, while trade openness and technological innovation upgraded the environmental quality. Putting it more elaborately, a unit escalation in GDP per capita increases the ecological footprint by 0.829% in the long run, while a unit increase in energy consumption upsurges the ecological footprint by 1.074% and 0.761% in the long run and short run, respectively. As regards technology innovation, one unit increase in it cutbacks the ecological footprint by 0.596% in the long run. Furthermore, the frequency domain causality unveiled the long-run feedback effect between economic growth and ecological footprint. The study further presents possible recommendations that can sustainably address environmental issues, keeping the economy buoyant.

Do international collaborations in environmental-related technology development in the U.S. pay off in combating carbon dioxide emissions? Role of domestic environmental innovation, renewable energy consumption, and trade openness

Many economies are seeking new ways to improve environmental quality through international collaboration in environmental-related technology development (ICERTD). Cost reduction, green market penetration, and green technology development are central to global partnerships for sustainable development, even though no empirical study explains the ICERTD-carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions nexus. The paper fills this knowledge gap in the environmental economics literature by examining the relationship between ICERTD and CO₂ emissions in the U.S. from 1990Q1 to 2018Q4 using domestic environmental innovation, trade openness, renewable energy consumption, and gross domestic product per capita as control variables. Fully modified ordinary least squares, dynamic ordinary least squares, and correlated component regression methods were employed for testing the long-run nexus among the variables. The present study revealed that (i) a long-run cointegration existed among ICERTD, domestic environmental innovation, trade openness, renewable energy consumption, gross domestic product per capita, and CO₂ emissions; (ii) ICERTD, domestic environmental innovation, and renewable energy consumption benefited the U.S. in lowering CO₂ emissions in the long run; and (iii) trade openness and gross domestic product per capita were positively associated with CO₂ emissions. This study recommends important policy recommendations for increasing ICERTD for decarbonization.

New insight into examining the role of financial development in economic growth effect on a composite environmental quality index

The inclusion of an index, which can be the representative of environmental quality from different aspects, seems to be of paramount significance. This issue is a major challenging one in the economic-environmental literature. This study investigates the role of financial development in economic growth effect on the composite environmental quality index (CEQI) in two groups of selected Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. In this regard, System Generalized Method of Moment (SYS-GMM) is applied to fit the research models. According to the findings, in the selected OPEC countries, financial development reinforces negative impacts of economic growth on environmental quality. In the selected OECD countries, economic growth has negative effect on the environmental quality and financial development weakens this effect. The effect of financial development on the CEQI is respectively negative and positive in OPEC and OECD countries. Moreover, in both groups of selected countries, energy consumption and economic growth have a negative impact on the CEQI; nonetheless, trade openness has a positive effect. Accordingly, some policy suggestions and new recommendations are presented for future studies, which would contribute to the better implementation of economic-environmental policies. Graphical abstract.

The intermittent effects of renewable energy on ecological footprint: evidence from developing countries

This paper examines the relationship between renewable, non-renewable energy, natural resources, human capital, and globalization on ecological footprint from 1990 to 2016 for developing countries. We apply Westerlund co-integration technique to check the long-run relationship among the variables. The long-run elasticity of the model is analyzed through MG, AMG, and DCCE. For the robustness check of the long-run relationship among the variables, we use FMOLS and DOLS approach. The direction of causal relationship is determined through Dumitrescu and Hurlin causality test. Our findings revealed that economic growth, non-renewable energy, natural resource, and urbanization are inducing the ecological footprint of developing countries and reducing the environment's quality. To cope up with this situation, developing countries are bound to use more fossil fuel energy. The use of non-renewable energy consumption leads to increase the extraction of natural resources like coal and oil. However, renewable energy reduces the ecological footprint or improves environmental quality. Similarly, human capital and globalization have negative effects on ecological footprint. The results of causality test reveal that there are feedback effects between ecological footprint with economic growth, globalization, and natural resources. This study suggests that these developing countries should focus more on the investment in the renewable energy sector, improve quality education, and make stringent environmental policy for protecting the nations from ecological issues.

Investigating marginal effect of economic growth on environmental quality based on six environmental indicators: does financial development have a determinative role in strengthening or weakening this effect?

Given the complexity of the correlation of economic growth with financial development, and their interactive impacts on environmental quality, this study attempted to present new insights into indecisive outcomes from the contribution of financial development in determining the impressionability of environmental indicators under economic growth conditions. Previous studies only employed a single environmental indicator for analyzing the correlation between economic factors and environmental quality. However, six environmental indicators are adopted in this study to evaluate environmental quality and to reach major goals of this research. To this end, using 2-stage system generalized technique of moment estimator, the association of economic growth, energy consumption, financial development, environmental indicators, and trade openness is determined in selected OPEC countries for years 2010 to 2019. Findings indicated that accompanied by the effects of economic growth on any EFI, ANS, PN, and EPI variables, the financial development enhances such effect. This is while, the financial development would weaken the economic growth effect on the ESI variable. Regarding EVI, no significant association was observed. Regarding to ESI, EPI, and PN, trade openness applies a significantly positive impact on environmental quality; on the other hand, it has positive role in environmental degradation based on EFI and ANS. This is while, according to the EVI variable, trade openness has not meaningful impact on environmental status. Finally, energy use has significant and positive effects on environmental degradation in each of environmental indicators. However, this variable has not shown significant impact on EPI and ANS. Alternatively, findings indicated that financial development can be considered an important and key variable in improvement of the environmental quality due to the moderating role it plays relative to the negative economic growth effect on the environmental quality. At the end of this paper, some limitations are presented, and some suggestions for further studies are provided as well.

The effects of renewable and nonrenewable energy consumption on the ecological footprint: the role of environmental policy in BRICS countries

This study aims to investigate the impact of economic growth, renewable energy consumption, nonrenewable energy consumption, industrialization, and environmental policy stringency on the ecological footprint in the BRICS countries over the period of 1995-2016. Series of the advanced econometric method, such as the novel dynamic seemingly unrelated regression (DSUR) method and the Dumitrescu and Hurlin panel causality tests, are employed for scrutinizing the estimations of the long-run and causal relationships among variables. The results suggested that the economic growth, renewable energy consumption, nonrenewable energy consumption, and industry have a positive relationship to the ecological footprint, while environmental policy stringency has been described in the BRICS countries as having a negative relationship with the ecological footprint. In addition, the bidirectional relationship is found between (i) the ecological footprint and economic growth and (ii) the ecological footprint and renewable energy consumption.