In 2015,the United Nations(UN)developed the sustainable development goals that primarily aims to end poverty,protect the planet and ensure global prosperity by the end of 2030.In 2013,Chinese government launched the Belt and Road Initiative(BRI)which strongly adhered to the sustainable development goals with major emphasis on promoting technology transfer,economic growth and stringent environmental regulations to have a better world.The BRI highly promotes trade openness,technological innovation,and improved human capital.Therefore,there is significant attention and evidence that supports the influence of wage levels,technological progress,fund input,credit constraints mechanisms on the human capital.However,to achieve the targeted goals it comes with an opportunity cost of environmental degradation and concerns.Therefore,environmental regulation and its related government policies is also an important perspective for trade openness that influences the human capital.This research established a theoretical framework to examine the influence of trade openness on the human capital from traditionally used mechanisms such as(wage price mechanism,technological progress mechanism,fund-input mechanisms and credit constraint mechanisms)and a novel contemporary potential environmental regulation mechanism.The theoretical foundation is further supported by the human capital theory,wage theory,classical growth theory,neoclassical growth theory,endogenous growth theory,environment and sustainable growth theories.The proposed research establishes the underlying assumption that there is influence of trade openness on the level of human capital both from the traditional(wage price mechanism,technological progress mechanism,fund-input mechanisms and credit constraint mechanisms)and environmental regulation perspective.It provides theoretical support for BRI countries with similar economic,financial and technological conditions to aggressively implement more stricter environmental regulations from the viewpoint of trade openness and the human capital.In this view,the study has specified three main objectives that act as a driver towards the examination of a broader perspective.The first objective of this research was to explore the impact of trade openness on the human capital from a technological perspective.The second objective was to address the impact of trade openness on the human capital from a fund-input perspective.The third objective of the study is to explore the influence of trade openness on the human capital from an environmental regulation perspective.Moreover,to ensure the innovation this study proceeds from the previous studies that focused on the impact of trade openness on the human capital from the wage price,technological progress,fund input and credit constraint mechanism and also incorporated the environmental regulation perspective.Moreover,it employed the panel data from the Belt and Road countries to generalize the results.The key innovation of this paper is to provide both the theoretical foundation and empirical evidences that supports the existing conceptual framework and econometric modelling.This study has investigated the traditional and contemporary diverse mechanism through the direct(linear),non-linear and moderating/interaction effects(wage price mechanism,technological progress perspective,fund input mechanism,credit constraint mechanism and the environmental regulation perspective)in order to determine the influence of trade openness and the human capital.The empirical evidences will also be of significance for theorist,academic scholars and policymakers.The panel data is employed for this research consisting of 38 countries(regions) over the period1990-2019,including Armenia,Azerbaijan,Bahrain,Bangladesh,Bhutan,Brunei,Burma,Cambodia,China,Georgia,China’s Hong Kong,India,Indonesia,Iran,Iraq,Israel,Japan,Jordon,Kazakhstan,Kuwait,Kyrgyzstan,Malaysia,Mongolia,Nepal,Oman,Pakistan,Philippines,Qatar,Saudia Arabia,Singapore,South Korea,Sri Lanka,Tajikistan,Thailand,UAE,Uzbekistan and Vietnam.The world development indicators online dataset,the global economy dataset,Labor Statistics Yearbook of respective countries(regions) etc.are used to extract the relevant data of the research variables.Moreover,both the static and dynamic Generalized Moment Model(GMM)was applied to test the econometric model using Stata 24 a statistical software package and to support the hypothesis of the current study.The main findings of this research are as follows: The first result indicated that wage price mechanism negatively and significantly influenced the association between trade openness and human capital.The trade openness has increased job prospects and incomes in labor-intensive sectors,as well as the opportunity cost of workers’ human capital investment,resulting in a negative correlation between wages and human capital level.The second result shows trade openness and the foreign direct investment both positively and significantly influence the human capital.It explains the transfer and spillover of technological expertise from international trade and foreign direct investment helps to build human capital.Thirdly,there is a positive and significant influence of educational fund input and intensity of research and development on the human capital.Most importantly,the environmental regulations have formulated a negative and significant impact on the human capital.It explains environmental regulation has a long-term Ushaped impact on the human capital,and current environmental regulations are conducive to raising the human capital level in selected Belt and Road countries.Lastly,there is a positive and significant association between economic growth and the human capital.It explains an increase in per-student educational funds input is also favorable to promote educational growth and human capital accumulation,whereas an increase in research and development spending is encouraging for the creation of the demonstration effect,thereby promoting human capital accumulation.The following policy recommendations were made based on the results of this analysis.To begin,selected Belt and Road countries from the Asian region should promote education not only by increasing government educational support policy but also by directing the entire society toward educational investment,based on the cumulative effect of the human capital.Second,governments in both developed and emerging Asian economies should work to promote green and low-carbon foreign investment while discouraging high-carbon investment.Sustainable green economies are one of the top priorities of the Belt and Road Initiative and adhere to UN sustainability goals.Third,Asian economies should gradually increase environmental regulation,encourage the growth of green technology and environmental protection industries,and make a profound shift in industrial structure to fundamentally promote the accumulation of human capital,as outlined in the Belt and Road Initiative’s main agenda.Fourth,Asian regulatory authorities must implement supply-side structural reforms,actively adjust industrial structure to foreign trade competition,compete in the international market with green products,gradually improve job skills structure,and upgrade industrial structure and human capital accumulation.Finally,Asian regulatory authorities,especially those in developing economies,must increase research and development expenditure,increase demand for high-level talent,and encourage human capital accumulation.This study enriches the theory of sustainable development of both environment and economy. |