Integration of ecological innovation, institutional governance, and human capital development for a sustainable environment in Asian Countries

The study evaluates the dynamic influence of institutional quality, green innovation, and human capital on the ecological footprint in South Asian countries from 1990 to 2018. For empirical estimation of panel data, the study applied the cross-section autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) estimator to address the issues of cross-section dependency and slope heterogeneity. The long-run findings reveal that institutional governance and ecological innovation reduce the ecological footprint. Likewise, human development decreases the ecological footprint. The short-run outcomes are identical to the long-run; however, the short-run estimates’ magnitude is smaller than the long-run. The results also support the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis in the long run. The error correction term (ECT) with a significant negative value endorsed the conversion towards the long-run equilibrium position with a 26.5% annual adjustment rate in case of short-run deviation. The augmented mean group estimator ensures the robustness of estimates. The findings recommend that South Asian economies should promote green technology and human capital through R&D allocations in industrial and academic sectors.