IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/juipol/v81y2023ics0957178723000218.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does human capital complement sustainable development goals? Evidence from leading carbon emitter countries

Author

Listed:
  • Payab, Ahmad Haseeb
  • Kautish, Pradeep
  • Sharma, Rajesh
  • Siddiqui, Aaliyah
  • Mehta, Atul
  • Siddiqui, Mujahid

Abstract

In the quest to address economic and environmental issues, the UNDP emphasized generating synergy among various sustainable development goals (SDGs). In this regard, SDG4 (Quality of education) is the most crucial SDG, as human capital may help improve the quality of life and environment in the long run. Against this backdrop, this study explores human capital's direct and moderating effect on carbon emissions in nine leading carbon emitter nations from 1990 to 2018. We rely on a quantile approach to calculate elasticity coefficients and verify results using the cross-sectional-autoregressive-distributed lag (CS-ARDL) procedure. The results suggest that human capital leads to carbon emissions across quantiles when the direct impact of human capital on carbon emissions is assessed. Similarly, human capital helps navigate carbon emissions when interacting with industrial value-added and per-capita income. The association between the squared term of human capital and carbon emissions is negative across quantiles in leading carbon emitter nations. Besides investing in human capital, these nations need to intensify the usage of cleaner energy and advanced technologies because the elasticity coefficients of these variables are found to be negative across quantiles. We propose a sustainable growth roadmap in which interconnectedness among certain SDGs is considered.

Suggested Citation

  • Payab, Ahmad Haseeb & Kautish, Pradeep & Sharma, Rajesh & Siddiqui, Aaliyah & Mehta, Atul & Siddiqui, Mujahid, 2023. "Does human capital complement sustainable development goals? Evidence from leading carbon emitter countries," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:juipol:v:81:y:2023:i:c:s0957178723000218
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jup.2023.101509
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0957178723000218
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jup.2023.101509?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ehigiamusoe, Kizito Uyi & Dogan, Eyup, 2022. "The role of interaction effect between renewable energy consumption and real income in carbon emissions: Evidence from low-income countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    2. Ahsan Anwar & Avik Sinha & Arshian Sharif & Muhammad Siddique & Shoaib Irshad & Waseem Anwar & Summaira Malik, 2022. "The nexus between urbanization, renewable energy consumption, financial development, and CO2 emissions: evidence from selected Asian countries," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(5), pages 6556-6576, May.
    3. Robert C. Feenstra & Robert Inklaar & Marcel P. Timmer, 2015. "The Next Generation of the Penn World Table," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(10), pages 3150-3182, October.
    4. Allen Blackman & Arne Kildegaard, 2010. "Clean technological change in developing-country industrial clusters: Mexican leather tanning," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 12(3), pages 115-132, September.
    5. David Horan, 2020. "National Baselines for Integrated Implementation of an Environmental Sustainable Development Goal Assessed in a New Integrated SDG Index," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-20, August.
    6. Salim, Ruhul & Yao, Yao & Chen, George S., 2017. "Does human capital matter for energy consumption in China?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 49-59.
    7. Sultan Salem & Noman Arshed & Ahsan Anwar & Mubasher Iqbal & Nyla Sattar, 2021. "Renewable Energy Consumption and Carbon Emissions—Testing Nonlinearity for Highly Carbon Emitting Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-17, October.
    8. Cagno, Enrico & Trianni, Andrea, 2013. "Exploring drivers for energy efficiency within small- and medium-sized enterprises: First evidences from Italian manufacturing enterprises," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 276-285.
    9. Fortune Ganda, 2022. "The Environmental Impacts of Human Capital in the BRICS Economies," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(1), pages 611-634, March.
    10. Yao, Yao & Ivanovski, Kris & Inekwe, John & Smyth, Russell, 2020. "Human capital and CO2 emissions in the long run," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    11. Robert M. Solow, 1956. "A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 70(1), pages 65-94.
    12. Siddiqui, Aaliyah & Kautish, Pradeep & Sharma, Rajesh & Sinha, Avik & Siddiqui, Mujahid, 2022. "Evolving a policy framework discovering the dynamic association between determinants of oil consumption in India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    13. Hu, Guoheng & Can, Muhlis & Paramati, Sudharshan Reddy & Doğan, Buhari & Fang, Jianchun, 2020. "The effect of import product diversification on carbon emissions: New evidence for sustainable economic policies," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 198-210.
    14. Sinha, Avik & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Balsalobre, Daniel, 2017. "Exploring the Relationship between Energy Usage Segregation and Environmental Degradation in N-11 Countries," MPRA Paper 81212, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 07 Sep 2017.
    15. Romer, Paul M, 1990. "Endogenous Technological Change," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 71-102, October.
    16. Khan, Zeeshan & Ali, Shahid & Dong, Kangyin & Li, Rita Yi Man, 2021. "How does fiscal decentralization affect CO2 emissions? The roles of institutions and human capital," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    17. Rajesh Sharma & Pradeep Kautish, 2019. "Dynamism between selected macroeconomic determinants and electricity consumption in India," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 46(6), pages 805-821, June.
    18. Pablo-Romero, María del P. & Sánchez-Braza, Antonio, 2015. "Productive energy use and economic growth: Energy, physical and human capital relationships," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 420-429.
    19. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Sharma, Rajesh & Sinha, Avik & Jiao, Zhilun, 2021. "Analyzing nonlinear impact of economic growth drivers on CO2 emissions: Designing an SDG framework for India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 148(PB).
    20. Rajesh Sharma & Pradeep Kautish, 2020. "Linkages between Financial Development and Economic Growth in the Middle-Income Countries of South Asia: A Panel Data Investigation," Vision, , vol. 24(2), pages 140-150, June.
    21. Peter C. B. Phillips & Donggyu Sul, 2003. "Dynamic panel estimation and homogeneity testing under cross section dependence *," Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 6(1), pages 217-259, June.
    22. T. S. Breusch & A. R. Pagan, 1980. "The Lagrange Multiplier Test and its Applications to Model Specification in Econometrics," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 47(1), pages 239-253.
    23. Destek, Mehmet & Sinha, Avik, 2020. "Renewable, non-renewable energy consumption, economic growth, trade openness and ecological footprint: Evidence from organisation for economic Co-operation and development countries," MPRA Paper 104246, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2020.
    24. Sinha, Avik & Shah, Muhammad Ibrahim & Sengupta, Tuhin & Jiao, Zhilun, 2020. "Analyzing Technology-Emissions Association in Top-10 Polluted MENA Countries: How to Ascertain Sustainable Development by Quantile Modeling Approach," MPRA Paper 100253, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2020.
    25. Zhang, Rui & Sharma, Rajesh & Tan, Zhixiong & Kautish, Pradeep, 2022. "Do export diversification and stock market development drive carbon intensity? The role of renewable energy solutions in top carbon emitter countries," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 1318-1328.
    26. Chen, Maozhi & Sinha, Avik & Hu, Kexiang & Shah, Muhammad Ibrahim, 2021. "Impact of technological innovation on energy efficiency in industry 4.0 era: Moderation of shadow economy in sustainable development," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    27. Cole, Matthew A. & Elliott, Robert J.R. & Shimamoto, Kenichi, 2005. "Industrial characteristics, environmental regulations and air pollution: an analysis of the UK manufacturing sector," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 121-143, July.
    28. Wang, Zhijian & Ben Jebli, Mehdi & Madaleno, Mara & Doğan, Buhari & Shahzad, Umer, 2021. "Does export product quality and renewable energy induce carbon dioxide emissions: Evidence from leading complex and renewable energy economies," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 360-370.
    29. Sinha, Avik & Sengupta, Tuhin & Saha, Tanaya, 2020. "Technology policy and environmental quality at crossroads: Designing SDG policies for select Asia Pacific countries," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    30. Sharma, Rajesh & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Kautish, Pradeep & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2021. "Analyzing the impact of export diversification and technological innovation on renewable energy consumption: Evidences from BRICS nations," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 1034-1045.
    31. Nejat, Payam & Jomehzadeh, Fatemeh & Taheri, Mohammad Mahdi & Gohari, Mohammad & Abd. Majid, Muhd Zaimi, 2015. "A global review of energy consumption, CO2 emissions and policy in the residential sector (with an overview of the top ten CO2 emitting countries)," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 843-862.
    32. Koenker,Roger, 2005. "Quantile Regression," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521845731, September.
    33. Qi, Tianyu & Zhang, Xiliang & Karplus, Valerie J., 2014. "The energy and CO2 emissions impact of renewable energy development in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 60-69.
    34. Biggeri, Mario & Clark, David A. & Ferrannini, Andrea & Mauro, Vincenzo, 2019. "Tracking the SDGs in an ‘integrated’ manner: A proposal for a new index to capture synergies and trade-offs between and within goals," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 628-647.
    35. Onur Sapci & Jason F. Shogren, 2018. "Environmental quality, human capital and growth," Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(2), pages 184-203, April.
    36. Dasgupta, Susmita & Hettige, Hemamala & Wheeler, David, 2000. "What Improves Environmental Compliance? Evidence from Mexican Industry," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 39-66, January.
    37. Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Inekwe, John & Smyth, Russell & Zhang, Xibin, 2019. "R&D intensity and carbon emissions in the G7: 1870–2014," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 30-37.
    38. Sharma, Rajesh & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Sinha, Avik & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2021. "Examining the temporal impact of stock market development on carbon intensity: Evidence from South Asian countries," MPRA Paper 108925, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2021.
    39. Robert J. Barro, 2001. "Human Capital and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(2), pages 12-17, May.
    40. Zhao, Jun & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Dong, Xiucheng & Dong, Kangyin, 2021. "How does financial risk affect global CO2 emissions? The role of technological innovation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    41. Muhammad Khan, 2020. "CO2 emissions and sustainable economic development: New evidence on the role of human capital," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(5), pages 1279-1288, September.
    42. Shahzad, Umer & Doğan, Buhari & Sinha, Avik & Fareed, Zeeshan, 2021. "Does Export product diversification help to reduce energy demand: Exploring the contextual evidences from the newly industrialized countries," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    43. Meyer, Andrew, 2015. "Does education increase pro-environmental behavior? Evidence from Europe," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 108-121.
    44. Jing Wang & Yubing Xu, 2021. "Internet Usage, Human Capital and CO 2 Emissions: A Global Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-16, July.
    45. Li, Haizheng & Liu, Qinyi & Li, Bo & Fraumeni, Barbara & Zhang, Xiaobei, 2014. "Human capital estimates in China: New panel data 1985–2010," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 397-418.
    46. Jiao, Zhilun & Sharma, Rajesh & Kautish, Pradeep & Hussain, Hafezali Iqbal, 2021. "Unveiling the asymmetric impact of exports, oil prices, technological innovations, and income inequality on carbon emissions in India," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yan, Aqian & Luo, Xiaofeng & Zhang, Junbiao & Tang, Lin, 2024. "Does internet use promote clean energy use for cooking by women-headed rural households in China?," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    2. Lei, Lei & Ozturk, Ilhan & Murshed, Muntasir & Abrorov, Sirojiddin & Alvarado, Rafael & Mahmood, Haider, 2023. "Environmental innovations, energy innovations, governance, and environmental sustainability: Evidence from South and Southeast Asian countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    3. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Siddiqui, Aaliyah & Ahmad, Shabbir & Jiao, Zhilun, 2023. "Financial development as a new determinant of energy diversification: The role of natural capital and structural changes in Australia," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    4. Khalid Mehmood & Pradeep Kautish & Sachin Kumar Mangla & Ahsan Ali & Yigit Kazancoglu, 2024. "Navigating a net‐zero economy future: Antecedents and consequences of net‐zero economy‐based green innovation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(5), pages 4175-4197, July.
    5. Liu, Tong & Lan, Bo, 2024. "On the conflict of natural resources abundance and export upgrading in upper-middle and high-income countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    6. Wu, Peng & Li, Shanshan, 2023. "Does the risk of oil and energy based resources extraction Hinder or Foster sustainable development?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PB).
    7. Aydin, Mucahit & Erdem, Azad, 2024. "Analyzing the impact of resource productivity, energy productivity, and renewable energy consumption on environmental quality in EU countries: The moderating role of productivity," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    8. Wang, Junqi & Zain ul Abidin, Rana & Afshan, Sahar & Miao, Chenglin & Ullah, Ehsan & Cai, Xuesen, 2023. "Do economic growth and globalization are drivers of sustainable resources management? New insights from BRICS countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(PA).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jiao, Zhilun & Sharma, Rajesh & Kautish, Pradeep & Hussain, Hafezali Iqbal, 2021. "Unveiling the asymmetric impact of exports, oil prices, technological innovations, and income inequality on carbon emissions in India," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    2. Rajesh Sharma & Muhammad Shahbaz & Pradeep Kautish & Xuan Vinh Vo, 2023. "Diversified imports as catalysts for ecological footprint: examining the BRICS experience," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(4), pages 3153-3181, April.
    3. Sharma, Rajesh & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Sinha, Avik & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2021. "Examining the temporal impact of stock market development on carbon intensity: Evidence from South Asian countries," MPRA Paper 108925, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2021.
    4. Yao, Yao & Ivanovski, Kris & Inekwe, John & Smyth, Russell, 2020. "Human capital and CO2 emissions in the long run," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    5. Zhang, Rui & Sharma, Rajesh & Tan, Zhixiong & Kautish, Pradeep, 2022. "Do export diversification and stock market development drive carbon intensity? The role of renewable energy solutions in top carbon emitter countries," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 1318-1328.
    6. Yao, Yao & Ivanovski, Kris & Inekwe, John & Smyth, Russell, 2019. "Human capital and energy consumption: Evidence from OECD countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    7. Chishti, Muhammad Zubair & Sinha, Avik, 2022. "Do the shocks in technological and financial innovation influence the environmental quality? Evidence from BRICS economies," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    8. Shahzad, Umer & Ferraz, Diogo & Nguyen, Huu-Huan & Cui, Lianbiao, 2022. "Investigating the spill overs and connectedness between financial globalization, high-tech industries and environmental footprints: Fresh evidence in context of China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    9. Cheng Jin & Asif Razzaq & Faiza Saleem & Avik Sinha, 2022. "Asymmetric effects of eco-innovation and human capital development in realizing environmental sustainability in China: evidence from quantile ARDL framework," Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(1), pages 4947-4970, December.
    10. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Sinha, Avik & Raghutla, Chandrashekar & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2022. "Decomposing scale and technique effects of financial development and foreign direct investment on renewable energy consumption," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(PB).
    11. Abdul Haseeb & Enjun Xia & Shah Saud & Muhammad Usman & Muhammad Umer Quddoos, 2023. "Unveiling the liaison between human capital, trade openness, and environmental sustainability for BRICS economies: Robust panel‐data estimation," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 47(2), pages 229-256, May.
    12. AM Priyangani Adikari & Haiyun Liu & DMSLB Dissanayake & Manjula Ranagalage, 2023. "Human Capital and Carbon Emissions: The Way forward Reducing Environmental Degradation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-17, February.
    13. Hasan, Mohammad Maruf & Nan, Su & Waris, Umra, 2024. "Assessing the dynamics among oil consumption, ecological footprint, and renewable energy: Role of institutional quality in major oil-consuming countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    14. Xu, Deyi & Sheraz, Muhammad & Hassan, Arshad & Sinha, Avik & Ullah, Saif, 2022. "Financial development, renewable energy and CO2 emission in G7 countries: New evidence from non-linear and asymmetric analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    15. Atif Jahanger & Bo Yang & Wei-Chiao Huang & Muntasir Murshed & Muhammad Usman & Magdalena Radulescu, 2023. "Dynamic linkages between globalization, human capital, and carbon dioxide emissions: empirical evidence from developing economies," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(9), pages 9307-9335, September.
    16. Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Inekwe, John & Ivanovski, Kris & Smyth, Russell, 2023. "Human capital and energy consumption: Six centuries of evidence from the United Kingdom," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    17. Cui, Lianbiao & Weng, Shimei & Nadeem, Abdul Majeed & Rafique, Muhammad Zahid & Shahzad, Umer, 2022. "Exploring the role of renewable energy, urbanization and structural change for environmental sustainability: Comparative analysis for practical implications," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 215-224.
    18. Caglar, Abdullah Emre & Askin, Bekir Emre, 2023. "A path towards green revolution: How do competitive industrial performance and renewable energy consumption influence environmental quality indicators?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 273-280.
    19. Chien, Fengsheng & Anwar, Ahsan & Hsu, Ching-Chi & Sharif, Arshian & Razzaq, Asif & Sinha, Avik, 2021. "The role of information and communication technology in encountering environmental degradation: Proposing an SDG framework for the BRICS countries," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    20. Appiah, Michael & Li, Mingxing & Sehrish, Saba & Abaji, Emad Eddin, 2023. "Investigating the connections between innovation, natural resource extraction, and environmental pollution in OECD nations; examining the role of capital formation," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:juipol:v:81:y:2023:i:c:s0957178723000218. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/utilities-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.