The Dynamic Impact of Natural Resource Rents, Financial Development, and Technological Innovations on Environmental Quality: Empirical Evidence from BRI Economies

Until recently, many countries’ policies were motivated by economic growth; however, few strategies were developed to prevent environmental deterioration including reducing the ecological footprint. In this context, the purpose of this study was to analyze the role of natural resource rents, technological innovation, and financial development on the ecological footprint in 90 Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) economies. This research divided the BRI economies into high income, middle-income, and low-income levels to capture income differences. This research used the second-generation panel unit root, cointegration, and augmented mean group estimators to calculate the robust and reliable outcomes. Based on the annual data from 1991 to 2018, the findings show that natural resource rents drastically damage the quality of the environment, whereas technological innovations are helpful in reducing ecological footprint. Moreover, the outcome of the interaction term (natural resource rents and technological innovations) negatively impacts the ecological footprint. Interestingly, these findings were similar in the three income groups. In addition, financial development improved environmental quality in the middle-income BRI economies, but reduced it in high-income, low-income, and full sample countries. Furthermore, the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) concept has been validated across all BRI economies. Policymakers in BRI countries should move resources away from resource-rich sectors of industries/manufacturing sectors to enhance/promote economic growth and use these NRRs efficiently for a progressive, sustainable environment. Based on these findings, several efficient policy suggestions are proposed.

Natural Resources and Civil Conflict: The Role of Military Expenditures

Military expenditures significantly affect the relationship between the risk of civil conflict outbreak and natural resources. We show that a significant positive effect of natural resource rents on the risk of civil conflict outbreak is limited to countries with low military expenditures. In countries with high military expenditures, there is no significant effect of natural resource rents on civil conflict onset. An important message is thus that a conflict resource curse is absent in countries with sufficiently large military expenditures.

Natural Resource Rents-Capital Flight Nexus in Selected ECOWAS Countries: Evidence from Non-Linear ARDL Approach

The challenge of capital flight in the ECOWAS sub-region is worrisome. Huge revenue from natural resources also contributes to the relocation of available resources necessary for the development of the region. The study identifies the revenue from natural resources as a key driver of capital flight in the region. Hence, this study analyzed the effect of natural resource rents on capital flight in ECOWAS countries accounting for the role of asymmetry. Also, the study employed the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model to account for short-run and long-run asymmetries. The results revealed the presence of asymmetry in five countries, while two countries displayed symmetric effects. It also showed that the symmetric effect of natural resource rents on capital flight is weak for Guinea and Nigeria in the short-run while the long-run effect is not more pronounced for Nigeria. In the case of asymmetric effect, natural resource rents amplified capital flight in Cape Verde and Sierra Leone. Further evidence shows that the non-linearity of natural resource rents does not encourage capital flight in Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, and Ghana. Hence, the countries should promote transparency and accountability in the management of proceeds from natural resources to enhance development in the region.

Is Achieved Economic Development Environment Friendly? A New Insight From Central and Eastern Europe

Over the last few years, the linkage between economic development and environmental degradation has become a provocative question. Although this nexus has been studied vastly, some of the critical variables of economic development and their impacts on the environment need more focus. The present study explores the association between economic development, outward foreign direct investment, financial development, renewable energy consumption, natural resource rents, trade openness, and ecological footprint in Central and Eastern European economies. The panel data estimators such as augmented mean group and common correlated effect mean group are employed from 1990 to 2017. Empirical findings document that outward foreign direct investment, financial development, trade openness, natural resource rents, and renewable energy consumption increase economic development, implying that they positively affect economic development. Findings validate the inverted U-shaped EKC for concerned economies in case of the ecological footprint. The results show that the interaction term of GDPC with NR, outward foreign direct investment, and RE are eco-friendly indicators. The study results develop imperative policy implications for the selected region to attain sustainable development goals.