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The research investigates the relationship between intelligence quotient (IQ) and environmental degradation, aiming to understand how cognitive abilities influence environmental outcomes across different nations and time periods. The objective is to examine the impact of intelligence quotient (IQ) on environmental indicators such as carbon emissions, ecological demand, and the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC), seeking insights to inform environmental policy and stewardship. The study utilizes statistical techniques including Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Two Stage Least Squares (2SLS), and Iteratively Weighted Least Squares (IWLS) to analyze data from 147 nations over the years 2000–2017. These methods are applied to explore the relationship between IQ and environmental metrics while considering other relevant variables. The findings reveal unexpected positive associations between human intelligence quotient and carbon emissions, as well as ecological demand, challenging conventional notions of "delay discounting." Additionally, variations in the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis are identified across different pollutants, highlighting the roles of governance and international commitments in mitigating emissions. The study concludes by advocating for the adoption of a "delay discounting culture" to address environmental challenges effectively. It underscores the complex interactions between intelligence, governance, and population dynamics in shaping environmental outcomes, emphasizing the need for targeted policies to achieve sustainability objectives. • The study examines how intelligence quotient (IQ) relates to environmental outcomes globally. • It employs OLS, 2SLS, and IWLS to analyze 147 nations' data from 2000 to 2017. • The finding shows unexpected positive links between IQ and carbon emissions, challenging traditional assumptions. • The study also Identifies EKC variations by pollutant, emphasizing governance and international commitments in emission reduction. • The policy implications suggest an adoption of a "delay discounting culture" for effective environmental policy, stressing intelligence and governance interactions in sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of trade facilitation and institutions on sustainable environment on a panel of 41 Sub-Saharan African countries over the period 2005–2014. Six composite indicators of trade facilitation (namely: export costs, import costs, export documents, import documents, export time, and import time) with a composite index (TFindex) are employed on four indicators of environmental sustainability (viz; natural resource depletion, net forest depletion, biocapacity, and ecological footprint of consumption) together with their combined index (Envindex) using the System Generalized Method of Moments. The following findings are established: first, the indicators of TF are significant and positively correlated with environmental sustainability (ES). Second, institutional quality dampens ES for the most part of the models. Third, the adverse effects of TF measures, institutional quality, and their interactive terms seem more severe from consumption angle than production, thus suggesting that the sources of environmental pollutants are more consumption oriented than production. What is more, Environmental Kuznets Curve Thesis finds a further empirical support. Going forward, the need for a well-harmonized trade facilitation procedure within a sound institutional environment, supported by a well-implemented national environmental protection law hold the promising key to addressing the prevailing environmental issues in the continent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sub-Saharan African region is blessed with abundant natural resources and diverse ethnic groups, yet the region is dominated by the largest number of poor people worldwide due to inequitable distribution of national income. Existing statistics forecast decay in the quality of lives over the years compared to the continent of Asia that shares similar history with the region. In this paper, a five-dimensional first-order nonlinear ordinary differential equation was formulated to give insight into various factors that shaped dynamics of inclusive growth in sub-Saharan Africa. The validity test was performed based on ample mathematical theorems and the model was found to be valid. The model was then studied qualitatively and quantitatively via stability theory of nonlinear differential equations which depended on the policy success ratio and classical fourth-order Runge-Kutta scheme implemented in Maple, respectively. The results from the analysis showed that inclusive growth from abundant natural resources and ethnic diversity in sub-Saharan Africa was a function of policy reform whereby an increase in both equitable distribution of national income and accessibility of common man to the goods and services provided by the state to narrow inequality gap was accompanied with a low level of nepotism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on the causes of income differences between the rich and the poor have received an extensive attention in the inequality empirics. While ethnic diversity has also been identified as one of the fundamental causes of income inequality, the role of institutions as a mediating factor in the ethnicity-inequality nexus has not received the scholarly attention it deserves. To this end, this study complements the existing literature by investigating the extent to which institutional framework corrects the noisy influence originating from the nexus between "ethnic diversity" and inequality in 26 sub-Saharan African countries for the period 1996–2015. The empirical evidence is based on pooled OLS, fixed effects and system GMM estimators. The main findings reveal that the mediating influences of institutional settings are defective, thus making it extremely difficult to modulate the noisy impacts of ethno-linguistic and religious heterogeneity on inequality. In addition, the negative influences orchestrated by ethno-linguistic and religious diversities on inequality fail to attenuate the impact of income disparity even when interacted with institutions. On the policy front, institutional reforms tailored toward economic, political and institutional governances should be targeted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]