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While global warming and climate change associated with increasing carbon dioxide are widely seen to be one of the most serious worldwide dangers to population health, little is known regarding "how" country alters the linkage between increasing CO2 emissions and population health outcomes. Current literature on the health effects of CO2 emissions recommends various factors that may establish a more robust link, including health expenditure and research and development. Therefore, the purpose of this inquiry is to examine the effectiveness of health expenditure and RD in improving health outcomes through reducing CO2 emissions. Using data for Saudi Arabia over the period 2000-2018, the dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) technique shows that (i) health and RD expenditures decrease infant mortality and increase life expectancy; (ii) health and RD expenditures reduce CO2 emissions in all the estimated models; (iii) health and RD expenditures can improve health outcomes through reducing CO2 emissions; and (iv) health and RD expenditures have both direct and indirect effect on health outcomes. Policy implications and limitations are also discussed.

This inquiry contributes to the previous literature by analyzing the empirical linkage between the development of the financial sector and carbon emissions in the presence of good governance. Specifically, we examine the ability of good governance in moderating the negative effect of financial development on environmental quality in the case of Saudi Arabia over the period 1996-2016. Different indicators of financial development and governance quality are included in the analysis. Using Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) estimator, we find that (i) an unconditional effect of the three indicators of financial development on increasing carbon emissions in the most models; (ii) the conditional impact of the indicators of governance quality increases carbon emissions in the most models; (iii) the interactions between the indicators of governance and the indicators of financial development are negative and statistically significant only in the models pertaining to political and institutional governance, meaning that the development of financial sector reduces carbon emissions if it is accompanied by good institutional and political governance.

Absract This inquiry extends previous literature by assessing the role of educational capital (educational levels and government spending on education) in modulating the negative impact of different types of entrepreneurship on environmental quality for 32 developing economies. Four different types of entrepreneurship are included in the analysis, namely: opportunity entrepreneurship, necessity entrepreneurship, formal entrepreneurship, and informal entrepreneurship. The followings are the main findings provided by the system Generalized Method of Moments (Sys-GMM): (i) all the four types of entrepreneurship increase carbon emissions; (ii) necessity and informal entrepreneurship have the highest contribution to carbon emissions compared to opportunity and formal entrepreneurship; (iii) the conditional impact of educational capital, particularly tertiary education and government expenditure on education, reduces carbon emissions in the models pertaining to opportunity and necessity entrepreneurship; however, only tertiary education reduces carbon emissions in the models pertaining to formal and informal entrepreneurship; (iv) the net impacts on carbon emissions from the complementarity between educational capital and both opportunity and necessity entrepreneurship are negative and significant only for the tertiary education and government expenditure in education, indicating that these later can be used to modulate the negative impact of opportunity and necessity entrepreneurship on environmental quality; (v) the net impacts on carbon emissions from the complementarity between educational capital and both formal and informal entrepreneurship is negative and significant only for the tertiary education, meaning that this later can be used to modulate the negative impact of formal and informal entrepreneurship on environmental quality. Contributions to the theoretical and empirical literature, implications to policymakers and practitioners, and future research directions are also discussed.

The Sustainable Development Goals of eradicating poverty in all its forms and ensuring zero hunger by 2030 remain among the main challenges facing humanity. Despite the high flows of foreign capital (foreign aids and FDI) and the importance of the agricultural sector in developing countries, the question that arises is why these countries still live in the vicious circle of poverty and food insecurity? To answer this question, we applied the three step-approach proposed by Baron and Kenny (1986) to demonstrate how foreign direct investment (FDI) and four types of foreign aids [social infrastructure aid (SIA), investment aid (IA), Non-investment aid (NIA), and agriculture-forestry-fishing aid (AFFA)] reduce poverty and ensure food security through the development of the agriculture sector. Using data for 50 developing countries over the period 1995–2015, we found, in the first step of this approach, that FDI and the four types of foreign aids have positive and statistically significant impacts on poverty reduction and food security, except for NIA, which has an insignificant impact on food security. In the second step, we found that FDI and only two types of foreign aids (SIA and AFFA) have positive impacts on agricultural production. In the third step, we found that agricultural production in developing countries played a mediating role between FDI, SIA, AFFA, and poverty reduction. It also explains the relationship between FDI, SIA, and food security. Accordingly, we can conclude that ending poverty and hunger in developing nations depends on the development of the agriculture sector, the inflows of FDI, and the composition of foreign aids given to the host countries.

This paper investigates the impact of foreign capital (foreign direct investment and foreign aid) on poverty reduction and food security in the case of 50 developing countries over the 1995–2015 period. Four types of foreign aids are included in the analysis, namely: social-infrastructure-aid (SIA), investment aid (IA), non-investment-aid (NIA), and agriculture-forestry-fishing-aid (AFFA). The following findings are obtained through the TOBIT estimations: (i) FDI has a positive impact on food security and poverty reduction, (ii) SIA and NIA have positive impacts on poverty reduction; however, the impacts of IA and AFFA on poverty reduction is insignificant, (iii) SIA, IA, and AFFA positively contribute to food security, and (iv) the impacts of FDI and foreign aids on food security and poverty reduction increases when they are working together, i.e., a great collaboration between FDI and aids will be more effective in reducing poverty and assuring food security in developing countries. This complementarity is also confirmed using the system Generalized Method of Moments method. Policy implications and future research directions are also discussed.

This article investigates the links between FDI inflows, environmental quality, human capital, and economic growth in the Mediterranean region for the period of 1990–2013. Using both dynamic OLS and fully modified OLS methods, we find that (i) there is bidirectional causality between economic growth, FDI inflows, CO2 emissions, and human capital for all the considered panels, except in the Euro and Asian Mediterranean countries panel there is a unidirectional causality from FDI inflows to human capital as well as from human capital to FDI inflows; (ii) with the exception of the African Mediterranean countries panel, there is unidirectional causality running from GDP to FDI inflows as well as from GDP to human capital, from FDI to human capital, and from human capital to CO2 emissions. These empirical insights are of particular interest to policymakers to build sound policies to promote economic growth and improving environmental quality.

This study contributes to the existing entrepreneurship literature by demonstrating how formal and informal entrepreneurship in emerging economies are differentially driven by the interplay between financial development and good governance. The following findings are obtained through the two-step system Generalized Method of Moments: (i) there exists an unconditional positive (negative) impact of financial development on formal (informal) entrepreneurship; (ii) the conditional effect of quality of governance increases formal entrepreneurship and decreases informal entrepreneurship; (iii) the net effects on formal entrepreneurship from the interactions of financial development with the indicators of governance quality are mostly positive, indicating that the quality of governance can be employed to enhance the positive weak effect of financial development on formal entrepreneurship; and (iv) the net effects on informal entrepreneurship from the interactions between financial development and the indicators of governance quality are negative for most estimated models, indicating that good governance can be used as a policy variable that improves the potentially weak impact of financial development on reducing informal entrepreneurship. Theoretical and empirical contributions, policy and practical implications are also discussed.

This study examines whether responsible innovation can be an important channel through which the corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy influences the competitive advantage of the firm. Specifically, we tried to test the role of firm size and activity sector as conditional factors in the mediation of responsible innovation between CSR strategy and the competitive advantage for the case of Saudi Arabia enterprises. Based on structural equation modelling (SEM), our results show that responsible innovation is a key element of the sustainable business model since it determines the success of CSR strategy in boosting the competitive advantage of firms. In this model, the mediation of responsible innovation is moderated differently by the firm size and the activity sector, and it is dependent on the choice between strategic or reactive CSR strategy. Within this context, we also find that the indirect effects of the CSR strategy on competitive advantage are moderated by the firm size in the case of reactive CSR, whereas by the activity sector in case of strategic CSR. The originality of this paper is that it examines whether the competitive advantage of firms in a developing country is more dependent on the reactive CSR strategy or the strategic CSR strategy. It also proposes an empirical investigation into the conditional factors of responsible innovation and their effects on the relationship between CSR strategy and competitive advantage.

This study extends previous environmental sustainability literature by investigating the joint impact of economic growth and renewable energy on reducing CO2 emissions in Saudi Arabia over the period 1990&ndash, 2016. Using the fully modified ordinary least-square (FMOLS) and dynamic ordinary least-square DOLS estimators, we find that economic growth increases CO2 emissions in all estimated models. Moreover, the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis is only supported for CO2 emissions from liquid fuel consumption. The invalidity of the EKC hypothesis in the most commonly used models implies that economic growth alone is not sufficient to enhance environmental quality. Renewable energy is found to have a weak influence on reducing the indicators of environmental degradation. We also find that the joint impact of renewable energy consumption and economic growth on the indicators of CO2 emissions is negative and insignificant for all the estimated models, meaning that the level of renewable energy consumption in Saudi Arabia is not sufficient to moderate the negative effect of economic growth on environmental quality. Implications for policy are also discussed.

This article seeks to examine the impacts of renewable and non-renewable energy on carbon dioxide emissions for 14 Middle East and North Africa economies using fully modified least-squares and vector error correction model techniques. Different sectoral outputs (agricultural, industry, and services) are considered in the analysis to find the influence of each sector on carbon emissions and to validate the environmental Kuznets curve model at both aggregate and disaggregate levels. The fully modified least-squares estimates show that renewable energy enhances environmental quality, whereas non-renewable energy deteriorates it. We also find that the industry sector has the highest contribution to environmental degradation. The results of the vector error correction model technique show a two-way linkage between CO

International audience; To date, entrepreneurship researchers have tended to avoid state-of-the-art artificial intelligence techniques; in this paper, we fill that gap. Based on eclectic entrepreneurship theory, we present an original work that uses artificial intelligence to forecast the macrolevel determinants of entrepreneurial opportunity. Modern artificial intelligence could open new areas for future research opportunities in entrepreneurship and help close the gap between theory and practice. Our empirical analysis offers two major results by using a panel dataset of 149 countries covering 2007–2018 and six machine-learning models. First, entrepreneurs prefer to exploit opportunities in countries with stable economic governance that provide high education standards, health, social capital, and a safe, natural environment. Second, CatBoost regression performs better in predicting entrepreneurial opportunity compared to linear regression and more advanced machine-learning models. Recommendations for policy-makers and managers and directions for future studies are also discussed.

International audience; With the growing pressure from the adverse impact of environmental pollution and climate change, the deployment of renewable sources is becoming one of the economic priorities for governments worldwide. Despite potential gains of renewable sources, little evidence is provided in the literature about the determinants of renewable energy deployment in the MENA region. In particular, whether political stability, governance quality and financial development matter or not for unleashing the potentials of renewable energy programs. To this end, this paper aims to fill the gap by examining the impact of political stability, quality of governance and institutions, and financial development on the deployment of renewable energy production in 9 selected MENA countries using annual data over the period 1984-2014. Accordingly, an innovative panel quantile regression model with non-additive fixed effect has been developed to tackle this issue. Our findings confirm that the effect of political stability is clearly heterogeneous and supports earlier claims about the importance of political stability to foster investments in the renewable energy sector. Findings also show that financial development has a positive impact on renewable energy production. In addition, we also find that the interaction term between governance effectiveness and financial development is negative for the lower quantiles but positive for the highest quantiles. These findings support our hypotheses and suggest that political stability, governance effectiveness, and financial development are essential drivers for promoting renewable energy production in the MENA region.

Despite the high flow of foreign assistance and foreign direct investment (FDI) to developing countries, the potential of agricultural production remains low and stagnant. Accordingly, it is interesting to know how each type of foreign capital (FDI and foreign aid) affects the agricultural output? And what are the most effective forms of aid that increase agricultural production? The main objective of this study is to give answers to these equations using data for 50 developing countries over the 1995–2015 period. Our results indicate, first, that the effect of FDI only (without foreign aid) has a positive and significant effect on agricultural production. Second, we found that the four forms of foreign aids [notably social-infrastructure-aid (SIA), investment aid, non-investment-aid, agriculture–forestry–fishing-aid (AFFA)] have positive and significant effects on agricultural production. Finally, when we introduced both variables in the model, we found that FDI and two types of foreign aids (SIA and AFFA) have positive and significant effects on agricultural production. In conclusion, the synergies inherent between FDI, SIA, AFFA, increase twice the agricultural production.

Policymakers in many developing countries are facing pressures between the needs of environmental sustainability. In this context, the present article aims to examine the determinants of environmental sustainability in Saudi Arabia by addressing the following two questions: Is there an EKC in Saudi Arabia? Does financial development, human development, FDI, and trade openness lead to environmental improvement in Saudi Arabia? The empirical findings show that (i) per capita income, financial development, FDI and foreign trade positively contributes to environmental degradation; (ii) EKC hypothesis is validated in the case of Saudi Arabia; (iii) environmental degradation is very sensitive to the levels of financial development, FDI, and foreign trade; and corresponding thresholds were calculated. Policy makers in Saudi Arabia are invited to augment these variables at the level of the calculated thresholds (turning point) to attain the desired impact on environmental improvement.

This inquiry contributes to the previous literature by analyzing the empirical linkage between the development of the financial sector and carbon emissions in the presence of good governance. Specifically, we examine the ability of good governance in moderating the negative effect of financial development on environmental quality in Saudi Arabia over the period 1996-2016. Different indicators of financial development and governance quality are included in the analysis. Using the Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) estimator, we find (i) the exostence of unconditional effects of the three indicators of financial sector development on increasing carbon emissions in most models; (ii) the indicators of governance quality increase carbon emissions in most models; (iii) the net effects on CO

International audience; The new sustainable development goals (SDGs) call for actions to close the gap between the protection of the environment and the socio-economic development. To shed light on the link among economy, society, and ecology, this study assesses the ability of renewable energy to moderate the effects of CO2 emissions on human development and economic growth for 31 transitional economies. Our findings substantiate that: (i) CO2 emissions have unconditional negative effects on human development and economic growth; (ii) the net impacts on human development and economic growth are positive from the interplay between renewable energy and CO2 emissions, i.e. renewable energy reduces the influences of per capita CO2 emissions on human development and economic growth; (iii) renewable energy interacts with CO2 intensity and CO2 emissions from liquid fuel consumption to negatively influence economic growth and human development. To dampen these net negative effects, corresponding renewable energy thresholds were computed and discussed. Theoretical and empirical contributions, implications to policymakers, and practitioners are also discussed.

Sustainability has become an important and widely applied concept in the environmental economics literature. Despite the numerous studies employing an environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), this model has been critiqued for its incompleteness. This article builds a modified EKC model to examine the contribution of financial development for achieving sustainable development in the case of 14 selected Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries. Using the Augmented Mean Group (AMG) and Common Correlated Effects Mean Group (CCEMG) estimators, our empirical results show that the EKC hypothesis is valid for per capita CO2 emissions and ecological footprint. The results provide evidence also of the presence of linear and non-linear relationships between financial development and non-sustainability and indicate that financial development is likely to have a small long-term impact on sustainable development. This suggests that current efforts aimed at protecting the environment and achieving sustainability will be ineffective given the extent of the problem.

This study investigates the driving factors of the social commerce intention of online communities in Saudi Arabia by building a model that comprises two exogenous variables (social support and social commerce constructs (SCCs)), a mediating variable (trust), and one endogenous variable (social commerce intention). The study population comprises Facebook and Twitter users in the kingdom. A convenience sample of 500 social media users was chosen. Data were gathered via a questionnaire-based online survey. Our findings indicate that social support had a significant relationship with trust and social commerce intention. This relationship was significantly mediated by trust. SCCs also had a significant relationship with emotional as well as informational support and social commerce intention. Unexpectedly, the relationship between SCCs and social support dimensions was significantly mediated by trust. Consequently, it was concluded that social support, trust, and SCCs are key drivers of social commerce intention. These results invite social media retailers to consider such factors to increase social media users’ intention to purchase.

This study develops an innovative empirical approach based on System Generalized Method of Moment method to explore the moderating effects of renewable energy investment and governance quality on the relationship between environmental degradation and life satisfaction using a sample of 36 emerging countries covering the period 2005–2014. Different categories of governance and environmental degradation are included in the analysis. The results highlight five key points: (i) there exists an unconditional impacts of the four indicators of environmental degradation on decreasing life satisfaction in all the estimated models; (ii) the conditional impact renewable energy increases life satisfaction in most of the estimated models; (iii) the conditional impact of governance quality, particularly general and economic governance, increases the level of life satisfaction; (iv) the interaction impacts of renewable energy and the indicators of environmental degradation on life satisfaction are positive in all the estimated models, meaning that renewable energy could be used as a policy variable that moderates the negative influence of the environmental degradation indicators on life satisfaction are positive in most of the estimated models, indicating that good governance, particularly economic and institutional governance, could be used as a policy factor that moderates the adverse influence of environmental degradation on life satisfaction.

Compared to the prior discussion of the emerging research on entrepreneurship and sustainable development, the purpose of this study is to investigate the ability of the entrepreneurial activity to simultaneously enhance economic growth, advance environmental objectives, and improve social conditions in developing countries. We mainly found that entrepreneurship in these countries positively contributes to the economic and social dimensions of sustainable development, while its contribution to the environmental dimension is negative. The results of causality test confirm the interactions among entrepreneurship and these three dimensions in both short and long-run. Limitations and future research directions, some managerial and policy implications for entrepreneurial action in sustainable development are also discussed.

The relationship between entrepreneurship, output and environmental quality receives considerable attention from academics and policymakers, as society searches for solutions leading to environmental sustainability. Given this context, the current study contributes to this discussion by explaining how entrepreneurship and different sectoral outputs can help resolve the environmental problems of global socio-economic systems. So, we used data for 69 countries split across four homogeneous income-based panels: high-income, upper-middle-income, lower-middle-income, and low-income economies. Long-run elasticities suggest that (i) the rate of environmental damage due to the growth of sectoral outputs is much higher in the high-income sample; (ii) compared to output from other sectors, services makes the highest contribution to environmental degradation in high-income countries but its contribution in the other country samples is negative; indicating that a move to services economy would be beneficial for these countries; (iii) with the exception of the high-income sample, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between output growth and environmental degradation across country samples and sectors; (iv) the contribution of entrepreneurial activity to environmental degradation is lower in high-income countries compared to other country samples; and (v) entrepreneurship activity in high-income countries initially degrades the environment but then improves environmental quality after a certain level, that is, an inverted U-shaped relationship between entrepreneurship and environmental pollution. The findings are sensitive to different income groups and sectoral analyzes. In particular, these empirical findings aid sound economic policymaking for improving environmental quality and sustainable economic development.

Since the early 90s, after the implementation of various regulatory multinational agreements, debates about the impacts of environmental quality on international trade and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) have been increased considerably. This article tackles this issue for 14 home countries and 39 host countries for 6 Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) over the period 1990–2011 by using gravity models. We also used simultaneous-equation system of gravity models in order to investigate the two-way linkages between trade and FDI in the presence of environmental degradation. Our main findings suggest that the impact of the environmental degradation on trade is negative and significant only for the static estimation. However, the impact of the environmental degradation on FDI is negative and insignificant for both static and dynamic estimations. The results also show that there exists a unidirectional causal relationship running from trade to FDI.

The aim of this study is to exhibit an exhaustive survey which is related to the great flight of the literature of energy- environment-growth nexus at the individual and regional scale studies covering the period from 1978 to 2014. The survey takes into consideration the sample (country, region, etc.), periods covering, econometric strategies, and conclusions. Our survey is based on the causality direction among (i) the energy use variables (electricity, nuclear, renewable and non-renewable) and output growth; (ii) between economic growth and environment; and between the three variables at the same time. Globally, these surveys provide paradoxical and not conclusive results which energy consumption can boost economic growth through the productivity enhancement and it can boost also the environmental damages through the enhancement of pollutant emissions. Our survey sheds more the lights on the energy-environment-growth literature by giving an extensive listing (1978–2014) of these causal linkages among the energy use variables, environment and economic growth for both individual and collective cases. There is a unanimous consensus about the importance of dealing with such dynamic relationship, which is seems to be a cornerstone element in setting any ambition strategies (energy, ecological and economics).

This paper extends prior studies on sustainable entrepreneurship by proving how the impact of entrepreneurial activity on achieving sustainable development depends on the behaviors and motivations of entrepreneurs. More precisely, we examine the influence of opportunity and necessity driven entrepreneurs on the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development, which are constructed based on the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs). Using data for twenty developing countries, we find from the long-run estimates that opportunity entrepreneurship has a positive impact on the three dimensions of sustainable development, whereas necessity entrepreneurship has a negative effect on the environmental sustainability dimension. We also find from the short and long-run causality analyses that opportunity-driven entrepreneurs granger cause the three dimensions in the short and long-run, whereas necessity-driven entrepreneurs do not have any effect on these dimensions. Finally, the authors make some suggestions for further research in this area.

This article extends the previous studies on environmental economics literature by examining a possible relationship between economic growth, green energy, and environmental quality. Specifically, this article investigated the three-way linkage between economic growth, renewable energy, and environmental quality in the case of Saudi Arabia using the simultaneous equation modeling approach over the period of 1990&ndash, 2016. The following are the main findings obtained: (i) a unidirectional causal impact of economic growth on renewable energy consumption was found, confirming the conservation hypothesis, (ii) bidirectional relationships between economic growth and CO2 emissions and between CO2 emissions and renewable energy consumption were also found, (iii) the failure of renewable energy in Saudi Arabia to close the gap between growing the economy and protecting the environment in Saudi Arabia, (iv) the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis was supported. Policy implications are also discussed.

The environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis has been recognized in the environmental economics literature since the 1990's. Various statistical tests have been used on time series, cross section and panel data related to single and groups of countries to validate this hypothesis. In the literature, the validation has always been conducted by using a single equation. However, since both the environment and income variables are endogenous, the estimation of a single equation model when simultaneity exists produces inconsistent and biased estimates. Therefore, we formulate simultaneous two-equation models to investigate the EKC hypothesis for fifty-six countries, using annual panel data from 1990 to 2012, with the end year is determined by data availability for the panel. To make the panel data analysis more homogeneous, we investigate this issue for a three income-based panels (namely, high-, middle-, and low-income panels) given several explanatory variables. Our results indicate that there exists a bidirectional causality between economic growth and pollution emissions in the overall panels. We also find that the relationship is nonlinear and has an inverted U-shape for all the considered panels. Policy implications are provided.

This study contributes to the existing environmental economics literature by examining the short- and long-run impacts of renewable and nuclear energy consumption on CO2 emissions in the case of 15OECD countries over the period 1990–2018 using both the Fully Modified OLS (FMOLS) and the vector error correction model approach (VECM) estimation methods. The results of the FMOLS show that: (i) investment in nuclear energy reduces CO2 emissions in Canada, Netherlands, Japan, Switzerland, Czech Republic and UK, (ii) investment in renewable energy reduces CO2 emissions in Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Sweden, UK, US, Japan, Switzerland, Finland, Czech Republic; however, it increases CO2 emissions in Netherlands and South Korea, and (iii) both nuclear and renewable energy consumption reduces carbon emissions for the panel estimations. Moreover, the results of the VECM method show that nuclear and renewable energies reduce CO2 emissions in the long-term. Our results suggest that the best option to reduce CO2 emissions is to aim for a mix of nuclear and renewable energy. No need to choose. On the contrary: the two sources of energy are complementary. Policy implications are also discussed.

Technological innovation has generated much interest among scholars, practitioners, and policymakers as a critical instrument for achieving sustainable development. Although the relationship between technological innovation and sustainable development has been extensively discussed in the academic and policy circles, little studies have empirically examined the simultaneous impact of technological innovation on the three pillars of sustainable development. To fill this gap, the present study examines the ability of technological innovation to simultaneously promote economic progress and advance social and environmental conditions in the case of 75 low-, middle-, and high-income countries by demonstrating how this impact differs across the stages of economic development. From both long-run estimates and causality analysis, our findings reveal that technological innovation contributes simultaneously to the three pillars of sustainable development only in the case of rich countries; however, it only affects the economic and environmental dimensions in the middle-income countries, and no impact is found in the case of low-income countries. Future research directions, policy and managerial implications are also discussed.

Closing the gap between carbon emissions and economic development is one of the solutions for reaching the sustainable development goals (SDGs). The role of renewable energy in rebalancing environmental and economic conditions is becoming a significant subject of some debates in the current discussion circles. Hence, the main purpose of this article is to use both growth and environmental functions to demonstrate the effectiveness of renewable energy in promoting economic growth and mitigating carbon emissions in the case of 15 major renewable energy-consuming countries using both fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) and vector error correction model (VECM) estimation techniques. The results of the FMOLS method show the efficiency of renewable energy in increasing economic growth and reducing carbon emissions. We also find, from the VECM Granger causality test, that there is (i) a bidirectional causality between economic growth and renewable energy inshort- and long-run for both estimated functions, validating the feedback hypothesis; (ii) no causal relationship between CO2 emissions and renewable energy in the long-run, but a bidirectional causality between the two variables is found in the short-run; (iii) a bidirectional relationship between economic growth and CO2 emissions is found in both short and long-run. Policy and practical implications and future research directions are also discussed.

This article extends previous sustainability literature by demonstrating the effectiveness of good governance in rebalancing the economic, environmental, and social components of sustainable development. Good economic, political, and institutional governance are considered as conditional variables, which allow rebalancing these three components in the case of 20 selected MENA economies for the period 1996–2014. Using simultaneous-equation modeling approach, we find that (i) political and institutional governance positively contribute to the three components of sustainable development; (ii) there exists a two-way linkages between human development and economic growth, meaning that they are interrelated and may very well serve as complements to each other; (iii) increased economic growth conducts to further emissions, which, in turn, decreases economic growth; (iv) enhancing human development conducts to a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, which, in turn, negatively affects human development; (v) improving both political and institutional governance permits MENA governments to moderate both the negative impacts of carbon emissions on economic growth and human development and the positive impact of economic growth on increasing emissions, and as a result sustainable development.

International audience; The relationship between entrepreneurship and sustainable development has received considerable attention from academics and policymakers, as society searches for solutions leading to sustainability. The role of innovation and institutional quality in reaching sustainability goals is one of the key areas tackled by the current sustainable development debate, particularly in developing countries. Using a modified environmental Kuznets curve model, this study attempts to better improve our understanding of the critical roles of innovation, institutional quality, and entrepreneurship in the structural change toward a sustainable future in Africa. The empirical results show that both formal and informal entrepreneurship are conducive to less environmental quality and sustainability in 17 African countries where the contribution of informal entrepreneurship is much higher compared to the formal one. However, the relationship between entrepreneurship and sustainable development becomes strongly positive when the levels of innovation and institutional quality are higher. This research makes a contribution to this important emerging research area in that it clarifies conditions through which countries and firms in Africa can move toward more sustainable products and services. Formalizing the informal sector can lead to the improvement of the environmental and economic performance.

This paper examines the four-way interrelationship between renewable energy, environment, foreign trade and growth using simultaneous-equation panel data models for 24 middle- and high-income countries over the period 1990–2011. Our findings show that, for the high-income countries, there is a bidirectional causality between renewable energy and growth, between CO $$_{2}$$ emissions and economic growth, between foreign trade and growth and between renewable energy and CO $$_{2}$$ emissions. However, there is a unidirectional causality between foreign trade and renewable energy and between emissions and trade. In the case of middle-income countries, there is also a bidirectional causality between renewable energy and growth, between CO $$_{2}$$ emissions and growth, between trade and growth, between trade and renewable energy and between CO $$_{2}$$ emissions and trade. On the other hand, there is a unidirectional causality, running from renewable energy to CO $$_{2}$$ emissions. Understanding these controversial scenarios is prerequisite to reaching an international agreement on climate change in order to build sound economic policies and improving the environmental quality to sustain economic development.

This paper examines the relationship between financial development, CO2 emissions, trade and economic growth using simultaneous-equation panel data models for a panel of 12 MENA countries over the period 1990-2011. Our results indicate that there is evidence of bidirectional causality between CO2 emissions and economic growth. Economic growth and trade openness are interrelated i.e. bidirectional causality. Feedback hypothesis is validated between trade openness and financial development. Neutrality hypothesis is identified between CO2 emissions and financial development. Unidirectional causality running from financial development to economic growth and from trade openness to CO2 emissions is identified. Our empirical results also verified the existence of environmental Kuznets curve. These empirical insights are of particular interest to policymakers as they help build sound economic policies to sustain economic development and to improve the environmental quality.