Socio-economic Development And Environmental Governance In BRI Countries

With the rapid development of the world economy,industrialization and explosive population growth,the structural problems of socio-economic development have gradually emerged,such as resource depletion,environmental degradation and the disconnection between development and social organization,which have posed a new challenge to the socio-economic development model of the world.How to balance"green"and"growth"to achieve a balanced path of sustainable development has become a key issue in today’s world economic development.According to existing research,institutional quality and innovation drive are important paths to break through growth constraints and achieve economic growth.Therefore,under the perspective of institutional quality and innovation drive,it is of great practical significance to explore the path of sustainable development under socio-economic development and environmental governance,which provides a solid theoretical basis for continuing to promote sustainable growth of the world economy and building a community of human destiny.This exercise aims to provide BRI governments with timely and cost-effective solutions to ensure long-term economic development.We conducted empirical research on the aforementioned topic in chapter 3,chapter 4,chapter 5,and chapter 6.These four related studies provide academicians with thoughtful insights and long-term economic visions to formulate strategies to capture the environment’s negative impact,thereby providing practitioners with detailed acumens.In the following paragraphs,the summary information of each study is explained.The first chapter introduces environmental aspects of Economic Complexity（EC） and Human Development Index（HDI）in BRI countries and the research motivation and objectives of the study.This section also elaborates on the research gaps,research questions,and how this dissertation attempts to fill these gaps in the empirical literature.Finally,the structure of the thesis is explained in this chapter.Similarly,chapter 2 presents the comprehensive set of reviewed literature.Chapter 3 presents the contributive concept of economic complexity that has been formulated while contemplating countries’populations,trading capacity,and intensity of trading production.The study targets to reflect the moderating role of institutional quality on the relationship between economic complexity and ecological degradation in belt and road initiative countries（BRI）.Remarkably,we have accumulated the data of 47 BRI countries for the years 1996 to 2016.The novel Method of Moment Quantile Regression（MMQR）technique has been employed to meet the study’s objectives.This approach is vigorous to outlier and gives nonlinear associations among the variables.Empirical underpinnings indicate that economic complexity augments environmental degradation;however foreign direct investment has been signified as a deterrent for the environment and justified the pollution halo hypothesis.Meanwhile,the moderating role of institutional quality has also been demonstrated while revealing its significance for mitigating environmental degradation.The theoretical contribution has been acknowledged by satisfying the environmental Kuznets curve（EKC）under economic complexity at middle to higher quantiles.The robustness of the model has been verified by alternative methods（FE-OLS,FMOLS and DOLS）.This study will be conducive for the policymakers concerning the trading capacity,investment in modern technologies,and institutional quality in BRI countries.Chapter 4 examines the impact of economic complexity on the ecological quality of BRI countries for the years 1996 to 2016 and tests the impression of economic complexity and innovation on carbon footprints.Remarkably,the moderating impact of innovation has been analyzed while signifying the native implications for environmental quality.Empirical underpinnings have been deduced while employing the three statistical techniques:Dynamic Ordinary Least Square,Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square,and Fixed Effect Least square.It has been inferred that economic complexity deters the ecological quality while Innovation is a blessing in disguise for the environmental footprints.Moreover,financial development invigorates,whereas renewable energy declines the intensity of environmental quality.Furthermore,the moderating role of innovation proved to be a deterrent for environmental quality.Significantly,the MMQR regression technique has also been executed to demonstrate the effectiveness of all independent variables throughout quantiles（10th,20th,30th,40th,50th,60th,70th,80th,90th）.The study’s implication signifies that BRI countries should concentrate on technological innovation and endorse renewable energy resources to alleviate environmental degradation.The principal aim of Chapter 5 is to probe the nexus between the human development index（HDI）,cleaner energy consumption,urbanization and consumer price index with the environmental degradation（CO₂emissions）for 46-BRI countries in a panel framework throughout 1996 to 2016.Empirical results postulate that HDI and renewable energy have a negatively significant connection with CO₂ for the whole sample.At the same time,urbanization and the consumer price index contribute to environmental pollution rather than alleviating degradation.This study bi-furcates the BRI countries in Asian and European economies and serves that low HDI countries perform poorly due to their vicious cycle of underdevelopment.On the other hand,humanly developed nations employ their resources to produce renewable energy.Consequently,BRI-European economies portray a negative connection,having greater magnitude,between HDI and the ecological system.Therefore,improving HDI is the best policy towards preserving the environment in BRI countries.This study will support scholars and policymakers in drawing policy implications for developing and developed nations.Chapter 6 intends to discover the causal relationship among national governance,human development,the services sector,and the environment using a panel dataset of46 BRI economies from 1996 to 2016.An innovative panel Granger technique proposed by Juodis et al.（2021）is followed.We examine the Granger causality in heterogeneous or homogeneous panels with the help of this approach.This study explores the causal effects at several heterogeneous regions and further bi-furcates the sample into BRI-Asian and European countries.Empirical outcomes demonstrate that bi-directional causalities exist among institutional quality,human development,services industry,and CO₂emissions for all the panels.More so,the estimations of the study variables are also robust with ecological footprints.The magnitudes of the effects are indifferent among panels.The empirical findings disclose that national governance,human development,and services,rather than contaminating the environment,contribute to preserving the environmental degradation for developed and developing nations.High-income economies,however,play their role more equitably toward the ecosystem.It is concluded that impartial institutional quality,efficient human development,and dominant services industry leads towards environmental richness.Our findings recommend that both developed and emerging countries underscore governance and human welfare to accomplish the targets of net-zero emissions.This study will assist policymakers in ensuring a sustainable future.Lastly,Chapter 7 encompasses the concluding remarks of the whole dissertation.